Yelena Eckemoff

Last updated

Yelena Eckemoff
Yelena 1.jpg
Background information
Born Moscow, Russia
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, label founder, producer, educator
Instrument(s)Piano
Years active1991–present
LabelsL&H Production
Website www.yelenamusic.com

Yelena Eckemoff is a Russian-born pianist, composer, poet, and visual artist. Her compositions blend classical music with jazz, and feature exploration and improvisation. [1]

Contents

Music career

Eckemoff was born in Moscow, Russia, in the Soviet Union. Her mother was a professional pianist and teacher. When Eckemoff was four, she started to play piano by ear and took lessons from her mother. At seven, she attended Gnessin State Musical College, a school for gifted children. She studied classical piano at Moscow State Conservatory. After graduating, she taught piano in Moscow. She gave solo concerts, took jazz classes, composed music for several instruments, and played in a jazz-rock band. [2] [3]

In 1991, she moved to the U.S. [4] She has recorded in several genres: classical, vocal, folk, Christian, and jazz. [5] Although jazz is typically associated with improvisation, Eckemoff often writes scores for her songs. [6] Her music has been described as classical chamber music in the context of improvisational jazz. [4]

Jazz Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Taylor</span> American composer and poet (1929–2018)

Cecil Percival Taylor was an American pianist and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Jarrett</span> American jazz/classical pianist and composer (born 1945)

Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a group leader and solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, including Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chick Corea</span> American musician and composer (1941–2021)

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiromi Uehara</span> Japanese musician and composer

Hiromi Uehara, known professionally as Hiromi, is a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blending of musical genres such as stride, post-bop, progressive rock, classical, nu jazz and fusion in her compositions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aziza Mustafa Zadeh</span> Azerbaijani singer, pianist, and composer (born 1969)

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh is an Azerbaijani singer, pianist, and composer who plays a fusion of jazz and mugham with classical and avant-garde influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marilyn Mazur</span> American-born Danish percussionist

Marilyn Mazur is an American-born Danish percussionist. Since 1975, she has worked as a percussionist with various groups, among them Six Winds with Alex Riel. Mazur is primarily an autodidact, but she has a degree in percussion from the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myra Melford</span> American jazz pianist and composer

Myra Melford is an American avant-garde jazz pianist and composer. A 2013 Guggenheim Fellow, Melford was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as an "explosive player, a virtuoso who shocks and soothes, and who can make the piano stand up and do things it doesn't seem to have been designed for."

Nikolai Girshevich Kapustin was a Soviet composer and pianist of Russian-Jewish descent. He played with early Soviet jazz bands such as the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra. In his compositions, mostly for piano, he often fused jazz and classical forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marilyn Crispell</span> American jazz pianist and composer

Marilyn Crispell is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote: "Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano... She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz." In addition to her own extensive work as a soloist or bandleader, Crispell is also known as a longtime member of saxophonist Anthony Braxton's quartet in the 1980s and '90s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Hersch</span> American jazz pianist

Fred Hersch is an American jazz pianist, composer, and a 17-time Grammy nominée. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than 75 of his jazz compositions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Mehldau</span> American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger

Bradford Alexander Mehldau is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Feldman</span> American violinist

Mark Feldman is an American jazz violinist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yitzhak Yedid</span> Musical artist

Yitzhak Yedid is an Israeli-Australian composer of contemporary classical music. He is also a pianist and an educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvie Courvoisier</span> Swiss musician

Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 and was named Pianist of the Year for 2023 in the international critics poll of Spanish jazz publication El Intruso. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated the distinctive character of Courvoisier’s art this way: “Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”

Galina Eguiazarova is a Russian pianist and professor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Bear</span> American pianist, composer and singer

Emily Jordan Bear is an American composer, pianist, songwriter and singer. After beginning to play the piano and compose music as a small child, Bear made her professional piano debut at the Ravinia Festival at the age of five, the youngest performer ever to play there. She gained wider notice from a series of appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show beginning at the age of six. She has since played her own compositions and other works with orchestras and ensembles in North America, Europe and Asia, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Montreux Jazz Festival and Jazz Open Stuttgart. She won two Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the youngest person ever to win the award, and also won two Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mats Eilertsen</span> Norwegian jazz musician and composer

Mats Eilertsen is a Norwegian jazz musician and composer. He is known for recording with numerous bands, including the Maria Kannegaard Trio, Ola Kvernberg, Nils Økland, Eldbjørg Raknes, Anders Aarum Trio, Eirik Hegdal, Sverre Gjørvad, Nymark Collective, SKRUK, «Jazzmob», «Dingobats», Håkon Kornstad Trio, Food with Iain Ballamy, Jacob Young Band, Solveig Slettahjell's Slow Motion Orchestra, Håvard Wiik Trio, and «JazzCode».

<i>Abaton</i> (album) 2003 studio album by Sylvie Courvoisier

Abaton is a double album by Swiss pianist and composer Sylvie Courvoisier, recorded in September 2002 and released on ECM the following year, featuring one disc of compositions and one of improvisations. The trio consists violinist Mark Feldman and cellist Erik Friedlander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olavi Louhivuori</span> Finnish jazz drummer and composer

Olavi Louhivuori is a Finnish jazz drummer and composer, the leader of his own ensemble Oddarrang, and also performer within several other bands. He is married to the singer Emma Salokoski.

<i>Andando el Tiempo</i> 2016 studio album by Carla Bley / Andy Sheppard / Steve Swallow

Andando el Tiempo is an album by American composer and pianist Carla Bley with saxophonist Andy Sheppard and bass guitarist Steve Swallow released on the ECM label. Though the musicians are longtime collaborators, this is their third album as a trio and second on the ECM label. It is Bley's first complete album of new compositions in eight years and is titled after a three part meditation on addiction and recovery, inspired by a friend's struggle with alcoholism.

References

  1. Jurek, Thom (4 October 2013). "Artist Biography". All Music Guide. Archived from the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  2. "Yelena Music". www.yelenamusic.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  3. "Yelena Eckemoff: Forget-Me-Not". wn.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 Sullivan, Mark (5 July 2016). "Yelena Eckemoff Quartet: Leaving Everything Behind". All About Jazz. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  5. Boeckstaens, Andy. "Yelena Eckemoff Trio – Lions". London Jazz News. Archived from the original on 15 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  6. McClenaghan, Dan (11 March 2015). "Yelena Eckemoff Trio: Lions". All About Jazz. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2024.