Damian's first exposure to the pan flute came from an uncle, who gave him two lessons before fleeing the country; after that, Damian was on his own. But he kept practicing the instrument, and by the age of 14, Damian had performed the European classical works of Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach on national television. The musician became known for his impressive technique on the pan flute, and Romanians nicknamed him "the Speed of Light" because of his ability to play complex, challenging music at fast tempos. When Damian reached adulthood, he hoped to perform in other countries; in 1988, he applied for a visa. But his request was refused by the Ceaucescu regime, and the musician decided that he would try to flee the country without the government's permission. After hiking 400 miles, Damian managed to escape from Romania and get to Athens, Greece.
Several months after his escape, Damian learned that Ceaucescu's regime had been overthrown and that the hated dictator had been executed. And he also saw that Romania, like other countries in Eastern Europe, was turning capitalist; in the '80s and '90s, countries ranging from Russia and Poland to Czechoslovakia and Hungary rejected Communism and embraced free enterprise. But Damian had no desire to move back to Romania; he felt that his future was in the West and remained in Athens, where he played his secondary instrument, the piano, in Greek nightclubs. While living in Athens, Damian applied to Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music and was accepted as a pianist; after playing Charlie Parker's bebop standard Yardbird Suite on the pan flute for Berklee employees, he was awarded a fully paid four-year scholarship. But it only took Damian two years to graduate from the revered music school, and after his graduation, he moved to Los Angeles. By 2000, Damian had recorded at least 12 CDs, although 1999's Romanian Gypsy: Pan Flute Virtuoso on Lyrichord was his first U.S. release. In November 2001, Damian visited Romania and played for about 72,000 people at the Centru Civic in Bucharest; that concert was taped and resulted in the album In Concert from Bucharest, which Naimad Records released in the U.S. in June 2002. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi