Ferus Mustafov

Ferus Mustafov
Birth name	Ferus Mustafov
Also known as	King Ferus Mustafov
Born	Štip, Socialist Republic of Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia
Genres	Balkan folk and gypsy
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone, violin, and clarinet
Years active	late '70s - present

Ferus Mustafov, also known as King Ferus Mustafov, is a Macedonian saxophonist of Romani descent. He is a multi-instrumentalist and is highly popular in his home country for his repertoire of Balkan folk and gypsy, or Rom, wedding music. He is also credited as one of the artists from the Balkan region to have made this type of music internationally popular.

He was born in Štip, Yugoslavia, into a Rom family of musicians and is the son of Ilmi Jašarov who is credited with introducing the saxophone into the folk music of the area.

His professional career began at the age of seventeen whilst studying violin and clarinet at his local junior music academy. During this time he was invited to go on tour with a band led by Toma Črčev, the tour's success led him to abandon his academic learning to become a working musician.

Following a year of military service, during which he established his reputation playing at evening dances, he moved to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he took a leading role in the explosion in popularity of folk music taking place there at the time. Later, he became a director of musical programming in the Rom language for Radio Television in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, and gained an international audience through his album releases on world music record labels such as Globe Style and Tropical.

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