PERSONAL STATEMENT FROM YELENA
Thoughts On My Musical Journey
Music has surrounded me since my very beginning, as my mother was a professional pianist and teacher. I started to play piano by ear around four years of age and made up my own little pieces about things like fishes in the pond, birds in the forest, and squirrel cracking nuts, which my mother wrote down (and dated) in a music notebook that I still have in my possession.
My early interest in composing programmatic music never dissipated. Having received a brilliant education as a concert pianist in the classical music world, I loved to prepare and perform classical music repertoire. But still, composing my own music not only seemed more important to me, but was a necessity that helped me to process my feelings and experiences. As a teenager, I started to branch out of the classical music world to learn about other musical styles, including rock and jazz. All these influences were reflected in my compositions, which I arranged for various instruments and voice. I was eagerly searching for different musicians to perform my music and after graduation from the Moscow State Conservatory—I even played piano in progressive rock and jazz-rock bands.
I decided to put my career on hold to start a family, and soon after I immigrated to the United States, with all of the challenges that involved. But I never stopped composing, and after immigration, while raising children, I built and began to work in a home MIDI studio. I became enthralled with the fascinating world of the new MIDI technology, experimenting with an amazing variety of sampled and synthesized instrumental sounds. These experiments resulted in several albums of my own compositions that incorporated many new ideas. But more and more I felt the need to engage with live players.
Chance favors the prepared mind, they say. One day in 2009 I browsed My Space and, on the page of the esteemed Danish bassist, Mads Vinding, read the words “Would you like to have my bass on your tracks?” Those words changed the world for me! Needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity and started to send Mads Vinding my piano tracks for his bass overdubs. It was so rewarding to hear the bass lines of this master player so tastefully interwoven with my piano parts! Soon we recorded enough tracks for the album I had in mind. I decided to send some tracks to renowned drummer Peter Erskine, who, too, was accessible via Internet. Peter liked what he heard and graciously agreed to overdub his drums onto the piano-bass tracks. And that’s how my first “proper” jazz album, Cold Sun, released on April 12, 2010, was born.
I was thrilled with the result. So much so, that I kept composing, recording and sending piano tracks to Mads, who pointed out that we’d already done more than an album’s worth (actually, over 70 minutes long). So, on July 26th I released my second (74 minutes) album that year, Grass Catching the Wind, with Mads on bass and another great Danish musician, Morten Lund, on drums. Working with Mads Vinding was especially important for the beginning of my journey in the jazz world as I learned an incredible amount from him and from our on-line collaboration, which lasted over a year.
Both of these releases received enough critical acclaim that I was encouraged to venture into a live recording session with Peter Erskine and a Polish-American bassist he recommended, Darek Olezskiewitz. That August, in Pasadena, California, we recorded Flying Steps, which was released in the same year, on December 12th. Three albums in one year totalling 33 tracks and 3 hours and 42 minutes of new original music, and I absolutely loved how they sounded! This serendipitous turn of events is what propelled my music-making to new heights—I can hardly express the surprise and excitement that I felt at the time.
Since that super productive year, I’ve been writing, recording, and producing one or two albums annually under the auspices of my own label, L & H Production, co-owned with my ever-supportive husband and manager. When asked why I’ve been so prolific, I explain that I’ve been just compensating for not having a chance to work properly until 2009, when I started my musical engagement with maestro Mads Vinding.
I can’t describe how incredibly happy the journey of an independent recording producer makes me feel! On my own terms, I’ve been able to create all these conceptual albums designed to be different one from another, so no two are alike. I used my own paintings as the album artwork to illustrate my poetic or prose liner notes, written to describe the tracks or tell the album’s story. I’ve chosen, too, to work with a great variety of musicians, whether from the US and Europe. Intentionally, I have kept the lineup of musicians different from project to project and have collaborated with some of the greatest players in the field. It has also been important for me to deal with the best studios and sound engineers in bringing each project to life.
To see all these projects through to completion has required much dedication, discipline, and sacrifice. But as I look back over these 15 years—and the 22 albums I’ve launched into the world—I feel extremely fortunate to have succeeded as much as I have on this journey. This said, I am always looking for ways to evolve, and I’m always trying new things. So, I’m not nearly done. Sometimes it feels like I’m just warming up—perhaps the next turn of the spiral is beginning. I can’t help but wonder what next 15 years might bring.
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