About Me
"Each and everyone has his or her own melody.
Music is a state that we enter while going through
a particular stage of our lifes.
It makes us experience a wide range of emotions that attune us
to higher frequencies enabling us to resonate with the vibrations of the universe itself!"
Elena Leonova.Elena Leonova's musical language consists of wide range of stylistic and timbral means of expression, where twelve-tonal progressions harmoniously co-exist with a lyrical melodism.
Her main priorities in music lay within delivering the beauty and freedom of expression that transcends all the traditional boundaries.Taking a deep interest in jazz harmony and polyrhythms, as well discovering John Coltrane’s "Matrix" system, made a definite paradigm shift in her musical approach, opening up an entirely new perspective. "I love writing for jazz musicians", Elena says, "Besides playing the notes that you wrote, they contribute their own material to your piece, it is a real pleasure to have that kind of creative input that takes your music to a higher level!"BiographyElena Leonova was born in Irpen - small town outside of Kiev, Ukraine, in 1971. She started studying music at the age of six at the Lysenko Music School for gifted children. According to her own words, there she received a primary foundation that
set the pace to her entire musical career.
After finishing Lysenko Music School, she was inroled into "Tchaikovsky Conservatory" in Kiev, Ukraine, majoring in piano and musical composition, where studied orchestration, form analysis, and various composition techniques with the professor Uri Ishenko. After graduating in 1994 with the diploma in musical composition (equivalent of masters degree), she was offered a position of a principal accompanist at the voice department of "Tchaikovsky Conservatory" where she worked until 2002. During that period performed with various chamber groups, some of them had Elena's music in their repertory.
Same year Elena went to "Acanthes School of Music Summer Program" located in Avinion, France, where she wrote "Kanzone", (a piece for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin and cello), and there she was introduced to the world of electronic music.
In 2003, after being offered a creative study grant "Gaude Polonia", Elena Leonova went to Krakow, Poland where she stayed for six months studying composition and electronic music with Marek Stachowski, Marek Cholonewski, and Boguslaw Schaffer. While studying in Krakow she wrote a chamber piece "Aeolian Harp"(alto-flute, cello, vibro-harp, computer generated sounds), "Quintet" (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano), "Light Sifting Thru the Lives"(chamber orchestra piece).
In the winter of 2004 moved to Mandeville, Jamaica, to teach piano and music theory to the children. "It was so rewording", Elena says, " to hear all these kids playing the music of Debussy and Rachmaninov so well, despite that was written so far away, it gave me a real sense that music is truly a universal language, for me it was as much of a learning experience as it was for them."
After returning to Kiev the same year, she participated in several modern music festivals, among others, "Kiev Music Fest", where her work "Aeolian Harp" was performed at Chamber Hall of Kiev Philharmonics, and started making her way into Kiev's jazz seine as a pianist.
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COMPLETE LIST OF COMPOSITIONS:"Pastoral Symphony" (Full symphony orchestra piece. Ukranian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Conducted by Vladimir Sirenko)"Dedication to Debussy" (Flute, Bassoon, Piano)"Movements" (Bassoon, Flute, Piano.)"Dolorosso" (Soprano Vocals, Alto Flute, Cello , Piano.)"Vesnovania" (Soprano Vocals, Chamber Orchestra.)"The Quartet" (Flute, Violin, Cello , Piano)"Four Miniatures" (Oboe Solo)"Secrets of the Desert" (Soprano Saxophone, Electric Bass, Piano,
Middle-Eastern Percussion. Narket Ramazanov - soprano sax, Andrew Valentine - bass, Alexander Beregovski - percussion, Elena Leonova - Piano)"Kanzone" (Soprano Vocals, Flute, Clarinet, Cello )"The Quintette" (Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano. Performed by student group of Krakow Music Academy)"Aeolian Harp" (Alto Flute, Cello , Marimba, Computer Generated Sounds)"Sunrays Sifting Through The Leaves" (Chamber Orchestra Piece)“Syphonietta Lucid Dream†(Flute, Clarinet, String Orchestra)“The Outbound Train†(The Jazz project Dmitri Alexandrov - bass clarinet, Denis Adu - flugelhorn, Alex Fantaev - drums, Andrew Valentine - double bass, Elena Leonova - piano)“West Indies Symphony†(Full symphony orchestra, piano and the drum set, recently performed Kiev Pops Symphony Orchestra. Soloists: Elena Leonova - Piano, Alex Fantaev - drum set, percussion. Conducted by Natalia Ponomarchuk)
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