Fellow member Isla Graham said: “It’s a really unique instrument – not a lot of people know what it is, especially in the UK.
“I like being able to say that I do something different to most people.”
Mr Hulme said he hoped more people would “come and have a go” and help ensure balalaika music was enjoyed for generations to come.
“Back in the 1980s the balalaika was seen as something exotic,” he said. “When we did concerts we had loads of people [and] could fill the Royal Northern College of Music quite easily.”
Over the years his orchestra has performed dozens of concerts, appeared at festivals, and even played for Ewan McGregor’s character in this year’s television series A Gentleman in Moscow.
“Oddly enough it was mostly filmed in Bolton,” Mr Hulme revealed. “The Metropol Hotel in Moscow, which in the 1920s was dripping with opulence and luxury, was filmed in a Methodist hall in Bolton.
“How they transformed it all is beyond me!”
