All Posts

← Part 2: Before the Piano Called Me Back ← ← Part 1: The Origins ← My “Someday” started not at the piano, but at the microphone. It was an incredible opportunity to collaborate on an album created by my close friend, singer-songwriter Boris Sonis, bringing me into the creative orbit of both Boris and his brilliant producer, Igor Kisil of Sweet Rains Records (NYC). My initial role as project manager and marketing director suddenly expanded when the need arose for female bac

← Part 1: The Piano Called Me Back ← → Part 3: From Harmony to Melody → In June of 1991, I came to Philadelphia for a three-month summer vacation. But the Universe had other plans: the August 19 coup in the USSR turned my life upside down and closed the door on returning home for a long time. My focus shifted to sheer survival, then to building a stable life as an immigrant in a completely new culture. I graduated with honors from a Paralegal program and dedicated the next

→ Part 2: Before the Piano Called Me Back → → Part 3: From Harmony to Melody → Circa 1975: Mrs. Shumsky's choir - where discipline and joy of music first fused for me. My first "foreign" language was music. At six, my grandmother—a concert pianist—enrolled me at Moscow Regional full-time Central Children’s Music School (now ЦДШИ ) , where the piano became both partner and disciplinarian. Those eight years shaped me: the glacial silence after mistakes, the unspoken demand f

If you want to study music, I suggest you first get a cat. A senior cat, specifically. Meet my most demanding—and furriest—colleague: a 19-year-old orange tomcat named Charlie. He’s entirely unimpressed by my certificates, achievements, or my most passionate renditions of Chopin. For years, he has lived by a plain, elegant philosophy: true contentment isn't found in complexity, but in the pure, honest enjoyment of a single perfect moment —a sunbeam, a gentle stroke, the quiet