Yuri Yunakov (Юри Юнаков) is a Bulgarian-Rom saxophone player and leader of the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble.

He was born in Haskovo, Bulgaria, of Turkish Rom ancestry, and currently lives in the New York City area. Yuri's career began with the ensemble MLADOST and he subsequently began a ten-year long collaboration with Ivo Papasov and Ensemble Trakia.

Yuri Yunakov is Bulgaria's most famous saxophonist. Together with the "Trakiya" orchestra, Yunakov has played at hundreds of weddings in his native Bulgaria, and has toured extensively in Europe and North America. In 1989 he was featured on NBC TV with saxophonist David Sanborn. Yuri appears on Gypsy Fire, an album of Turkish music on Traditional Crossroads. He is the director of the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble, and is in great demand among the Slavomacedonian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Turkish, Armenian, and Rom communities in the New York area.

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