Vladimir Popras plays the most massive instrument in the trio, Verrophone.
He was born in 1965 at Bratsk of Irkutskaya oblast. Like Igor Sklyarov he graduated from the Novosibirsk State Conservatory named after I. Glinka by the class of accordion. He taught for some time. He performed in the folk bands all over the world. He started playing the glass instruments in 2006.
Vladimir jokes that he was invited to perform in the Crystal Trio not thank to his diploma with honours, but because of the impressive build: verrophon in the package weights about 50 kilograms, which is a big difficulty for the constantly touring band. “However, — says Vladimir, — it also played its role that I mastered this absolutely unknown to me instrument for two weeks only, without any textbooks, even more so that they do not exist. Probably, I will become the author of the first textbook on playing the Verrophon.”
