Regina Spektor

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Biography

Regina Ilyinichna Spektor (, , ; born February 18, 1980) is a Russians|Russian United States|American singer-songwriter and piano|pianist . Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City 's East Village, Manhattan|East Village .

Early life

Spektor was born in Moscow , Soviet Union in 1980 to a musical Russian Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violin ist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Soviet college of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York .Soundcheck (2004-11-18), New York Public Radio She has a brother Barry (Bear), who was featured in track 7, "* * *", or "Whisper", of her 2004 album, Soviet Kitsch .

She learned how to play piano by practicing on a Petrof Upright piano|upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles , Queen (band)|Queen , and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika , when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the ethnic and political discrimination that Jews faced.Soundcheck interview (2005-09-13) . New York Public Radio. Spektor is fluent in Russian and reads Hebrew, and has since paid tribute to her Russian heritage, quoting the poem February by the Russian poet Boris Pasternak in her song Après Moi , and stating “I’m very connected to the language and the culture.” June 12, 2006, New York Magazine/

Traveling first to Austria and then Italy , the family was admitted to the United States as refugees with the assistance of HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and settled in The Bronx , where Spektor graduated from the SAR Academy , a Jewish day school|Jewish day middle school in the Riverdale, Bronx|Riverdale section of the Bronx. She then attended high school for two years at the Frisch School , a yeshiva in Paramus, New Jersey , but transferred to a public school, Fair Lawn High School , in Fair Lawn, New Jersey , where she finished the last two years of her high school education.

Beginnings as a songwriter

In New York, Spektor studied classical piano with Sonia Vargas, a professor at the Manhattan School of Music , until she was 17; Spektor's father had met Vargas through her husband, violinist Samuel Marder. Although the family had been unable to bring their piano from Russia, Spektor found a piano on which to play in the basement of her synagogue, and also practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=EaVRGDyS3ws& feature=related

Spektor was originally interested only in classical music, but later became interested in Hip hop music|hip hop , Rock music|rock and Punk rock|punk as well. Although she had always made up songs around the house, Spektor first became interested in more formal songwriting during a visit to Israel with the Nesiya|Nesiya Institute in her teenage years when she attracted attention from the other children on the trip for the songs she made up while hiking and realized she had an aptitude for songwriting.

Following this trip, she was exposed to the work of Joni Mitchell , Ani DiFranco , and other singer-songwriters, which encouraged her belief that she could create her own songs. She wrote her first a cappella songs around the age of 16 and her first songs for voice and piano when she was nearly 18.

Spektor completed the four-year studio composition program of the Conservatory of Music at State University of New York at Purchase|Purchase College within three years, graduating with Latin honors|honors in 2001. Around this time, she also worked briefly at a butterfly farm in Luck, Wisconsin ,Versatile Regina Spektor floats among her song stories, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI), October 12, 2006 and studied in Tottenham , ( a suburb of London ) for one semester.

She gradually achieved recognition through performances in the anti-folk scene in downtown New York City, often as a duo with drummer Anders Griffen , and most importantly at the East Village's Sidewalk Cafe, but also at the Living Room, Tonic, Fez, the Knitting Factory , and CBGB|CB 's Gallery. She also performed at local colleges (such as Sarah Lawrence College ) with other musicians, including the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. She sold self-published CDs at her performances during this period: 11:11 (Regina Spektor album)|11:11 (2001) and Songs (Regina Spektor album)|Songs (2002). In 2004, she signed a contract with Warner Brothers ' record label Sire Records to publish and distribute her third album Soviet Kitsch , originally self-released in 2003.

Style

Spektor has said that she has created a great number of songs, but that she rarely writes any of them down. She has also stated that she never aspired to write songs herself, but songs seem to just flow to her. Spektor's songs are not usually autobiography|autobiographical , but rather are based on scenarios and characters drawn from her imagination. Her songs show influences from folk music|folk , punk rock|punk , rock, Secular Jewish music|Jewish , ethnic Russian music|Russian , hip hop music|hip hop , jazz , and classical music . Spektor has said that she works hard to ensure that each of her songs has its own musical style, rather than trying to develop a distinctive style for her music as a whole.

Spektor has a broad vocal range and uses the full extent of it. She also explores a variety of different and somewhat unorthodox vocal techniques, such as verses composed entirely of buzzing noises made with the lips and beatboxing|beatbox -style flourishes in the middle of ballads, and also makes use of such unusual musical techniques as using a drum stick to tap rhythms on the body of the piano or chair. Part of her style also results from the exaggeration of certain aspects of vocalization, most notably the glottal stop , which is prominent in the single " Fidelity (song)|Fidelity ". She also uses a strong New York-New Jersey English|New York accent on some words, which she has said is due to her love of New York and its culture.

Her lyrics are equally eclectic, often taking the form of abstract narratives or first-person fictional character|character studies, similar to short story|short stories or vignette (literature)|vignettes put to song. Spektor usually sings in English, though she sometimes includes a few words or verses of Latin , Russian, French, and other languages in her songs. She also plays with pronunciations, which she said on a NPR interview to be a remnant of her early years when she listened to pop in English without understanding the lyrics. Some of Spektor's lyrics include literary allusions, such as to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in "Poor Little Rich Boy", The Little Prince in "Baobabs", Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood in "Paris", Ezra Pound and William Shakespeare in "Pound of Flesh", Shakespeare's Hamlet in "The Virgin Queen", Boris Pasternak in "Après Moi", Samson and Delilah in "Samson", and Oedipus the King in "Oedipus", Billie Holiday in "Lady" and Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome in "2.99 cent blues". She alludes to The Beatles and Paul McCartney in the song "Edit". She also used a line from Joni Mitchell's California in her song "The Devil Came to Bethlehem". Recurring themes and topics in Spektor's lyrics include love, death, religion (particularly Biblical and Jewish references), city life (particularly New York references), and certain key phrases have been known to recur in different songs by Spektor, such as references to gravedigger s, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the name "Mary Ann". Spektor's use of satire is evident in "Wasteside," which refers to The Twelve Chairs , the classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov , and describes the town in which people are born, get their hair cut, and then are sent to the cemetery.

In Spektor's early albums, many of her tracks had a very dry vocal record producer|production , with very little reverb or delay added. However, Spektor's more recent albums, particularly Begin to Hope , have put more emphasis into song production and have relied more on traditional pop and rock instruments. Spektor says the records that most impact her are those of "bands whose music is really involved", specifically naming The Beatles , Bob Dylan , Billie Holiday , Radiohead , Tom Waits , and Frédéric Chopin as primary influences., by Susan Visakowitz (from Billboard.biz, 13 January 2007)

In her songs, " Eet ", " Us (Regina Spektor song)|Us " and "Après Moi" the titular sounds are used as the focal point throughout. (In "Dance Anthem of the 80's", the sound "eet" is also used often, on words such as "meat", "street", and "eat").

Performances

Spektor's first nationwide tour was accompanying The Strokes as the opening act on their 2003–2004 Room on Fire tour, during which she and the band performed and recorded " Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men ". Kings of Leon were the second opening act on that tour, and they invited Regina to open for them on their own European tour right after The Strokes tour. In June 2005, Spektor was the opening act for the English piano rock band Keane (band)|Keane on their Hopes and Fears Tour|North American tour , during which she performed at Radio City Music Hall on June 7, 2005. During her 2006 headlining tour in support of the Begin to Hope album, Spektor sold out a performance at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania , and two shows at The Town Hall|Town Hall Theater in New York City on September 27 and September 28, 2006.

Spektor has appeared on '' The Tonight Show|The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (once), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (three times), The Tonight Show|The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (twice), Jimmy Kimmel Live (twice), Last Call with Carson Daly (five times), Late Show with David Letterman (twice), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (twice), CBS News Sunday Morning , Good Morning America (twice), Australia's Rove (TV series)|Rove Live , and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson '' (twice). On October 10, 2009 she performed on Saturday Night Live .

Since January 2005, Spektor has performed on a bright red Baldwin Piano|Baldwin baby grand piano. At the present time she uses exclusively Steinway & Sons pianos. She plays a seafoam Epiphone Wildkat Archtop guitar|archtop Semi-acoustic guitar|hollow-body electric guitar .

Although she generally only performs original material, Spektor occasionally performs covers. Most famous of these covers were her performances of songs by Leonard Cohen and Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna , for the 2nd Annual Jewish Music & Heritage Festival at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. In 2006 and 2007, Spektor embarked on a headlining tour of the U.S. and Europe, selling out numerous clubs and theaters. She covered John Lennon 's " Real Love (John Lennon song)|Real Love " at the performance arts center of her alma mater, State University of New York at Purchase , on March 28, 2007, at a benefit concert for the Conservatory of Music. http://www.nynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070329/ENTERTAINMENT/703290453 In 2007, Spektor recorded "Real Love" for the Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur CD, which was released in June of that year. She recorded a version of the song for Triple J 's Like a Version radio segment which was shown on Triple j tv|jTV .

On March 8, 2007, Spektor appeared on the British ITV network's Loose Women , promoting and performing "Fidelity" live, and on April 20, 2007, she performed on the Late Show with David Letterman . On Saturday, April 28, 2007, she appeared at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival . On Friday, May 18, 2007, she appeared on BBC1's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross . On June 16, 2007, she performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival and later performed at the 2007 Lollapalooza on August 4, 2007 and Virgin Festival on August 5, 2007 in Baltimore, Maryland. On September 16, 2007, she performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival and recorded a set for the Austin City Limits TV show the following day. She performed acoustic at the Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline Amphitheatre on October 27 and October 28, 2007.

On November 14, 2007, at her concert at Ryman Auditorium, in Nashville, it was announced that Spektor collapsed during the sound check and was taken to a local emergency room. According to the statement given to the audience, Spektor was fine, but doctors said that she could not perform that night. It was later reported that the cause of the collapse was an inner ear infection which caused intense Vertigo (medical)|vertigo . The show was initially rescheduled for December 6, 2007, but the date was once again rescheduled, and the concert finally occurred on February 29, 2008. After her initial collapse in Nashville, she was able to perform in concerts at Mountain Stage on November 18, 2007, and at Duke University on November 19, 2007.

In conjunction with the release of her 2009 album Far (album)|Far , Spektor was headlining at Serpentine Sessions, a series of concerts London 's Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park on June 29, 2009. Other European performances in 2009 include Glastonbury Festival , Hultsfred Festival , Oxegen 2009 , T in the Park , Paradiso (Amsterdam) , Latitude Festival , and Rock Werchter . Spektor has invited Brooklyn-based rock band Jupiter One to open concerts on her 2009 North American tour. As a part of that tour, on October 14, 2009 Spektor headlined a concert at the Radio City Music Hall in NYC.

On July 7, 2010, Regina performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland. Her cellist, Dan Cho, drowned the day before while swimming in Lake Geneva near the Chillon Castle . She was described as distraught, shaken, and in tears and took several breaks to regain her composure.

Media coverage

Since 2005, Spektor's music has been used in various television programs and commercials. In late 2005 "Us" (from Soviet Kitsch ) was used in a commercial as part of the What Do You Want To Watch? series for the United Kingdom's British Sky Broadcasting . The advert features a clip from a documentary on skateboarder Danny Way . In the summer of 2006, a clip from "Us" was used for the teaser website for Microsoft 's Microsoft Zune|Zune project at ComingZune.com, as well as for a promotional campaign for MtvU . The same track is used by Dutch telecom company KPN in a commercial. "Somedays" was used in a 2005 episode of CSI: NY and "Samson" was used in a 2006 episode of the same series. " On the Radio (Regina Spektor song)|On the Radio " was used in an episode of ABC's '' Grey's Anatomy ''. "Field Below" was used in a 2006 episode titled "The Last Word" of CBS's Criminal Minds . "Fidelity" has also been used in an episode of ''Grey's Anatomy titled "Six Days, Part 2", Veronica Mars titled " Wichita Linebacker ", Brothers & Sisters (2006 TV series)|Brothers & Sisters titled "Sexual Politics", during the end credits of Love and Other Drugs , and in the Brazilian telenovela A Favorita . " Better (Regina Spektor song)|Better " is currently being used in a commercial for XM Satellite Radio , an episode of " How I Met Your Mother ", and the popular film My Sister's Keeper ''. Her song "Music Box" is currently being used in a commercial for JC Penney. Spektor also sang the title song " Little Boxes " of Showtime (TV network)|Showtime 's television series Weeds (TV series)|Weeds in the episode " Mile Deep and a Foot Wide (Weeds episode)|Mile Deep and a Foot Wide " (2006) and her "Ghost of Corporate Future" was used both at the beginning and end of the episode. On January 21, 2007, she was featured on CBS News Sunday Morning .

Spektor received increased attention in 2006 when her video for "Fidelity" was viewed over 200,000& nbsp;times in two days on YouTube . On Sirius Satellite Radio|Sirius Radio 's Left of Center channel, her single "Fidelity" was voted by listeners as the #1 song of 2006. Towards the end of 2006, VH1 showcased her as part of their "You Oughta Know: Artists on the Rise" featurettes: they played clips from the "Fidelity" music video and showed parts of an interview with Spektor during commercial breaks on the channel. Spektor was recently named #3 on VH1's Top Artists Charts.
Peter Gabriel recorded a version of "Après Moi" on his 2010 release Scratch My Back .

In Australia, Spektor's music has rapidly gained popularity in mainstream culture primarily due to Begin to Hope being played on the nation-wide radio station Triple J , where it eventually became a feature album. Prior to Begin to Hope , Spektor had only a small following in Australia in comparison to the US and Europe.

Spektor reached #33 on Blender (magazine)|Blender magazine's top 100 of 2006 and was also listed as one of the "Hottest Women of...Rock!".
"Fidelity" was also used in a 2007 television commercial in New Zealand advertising Yahoo!Xtra , a new partnership between Yahoo! and Telecom New Zealand|Telecom 's Xtra (ISP)|Xtra Internet service provider|ISP . Also in 2007, the mobile phone company Vodafone used her lyric, "Come into my world..." from the track, "Hotel Song" on Begin to Hope , in an extensive TV advertising campaign in the UK and Ireland.

On October 1, 2007, Spektor's new video for "Better" was released on VH1 and YouTube , where it was viewed more than 100,000 times within the first 24 hours. "Fidelity" was used in the trailer for the film 27 Dresses , released on October 3, 2007.

Her song "The Call" appeared prominently in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (soundtrack)|The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian , as part of the film's finale sequence. Spektor's song "Better" was used in the movie '' My Sister's Keeper , loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jodi Picoult . A section of "That Time" was featured in the film In Bruges . Additionally, "Us" and "Hero" are both featured on the soundtrack for the film (500) Days of Summer . Spin (magazine)|Spin magazine profiled Spektor in their July 2009 issue, where she discussed her just-released album Far''. The story was released in their digital edition that month, as well. In August 2009, the song "Two Birds" was used in the 2009 Fall Campaign of the Polish TV station TVN (Poland)|TVN . Also Regina's song "Eet" debuted on the show 90210 (TV series)|90210 in April 2010.

On September 16, 2009, it was announced that Spektor would write the music for the musical Beauty , a modern adaptation of the Brothers Grimm|Grimms ' fairy tale Sleeping Beauty , which is set to open during the 2011–12 Broadway season.

In May 2010, Spektor performed for President Obama and his wife Michelle along with hundreds of other guests at the White House reception in honor of Jewish Heritage Month. She sang "Us" and "The Sword & the Pen," receiving a standing ovation begun by Michelle Obama.

The song "Human of the Year" featured prominently in the trailer and first episode of the 2011 HBO series Enlightened (TV series)|Enlightened .

Philanthropy

In 2007, she covered John Lennon's " Real Love (John Lennon song)|Real Love " for Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur . The following year, she participated in Songs for Tibet , an initiative to support the human rights situation in Tibet and the 14th Dalai Lama . The album was issued on August 5, 2008, via iTunes and on August 19 in music stores around the world.E-Online (July 22, 2008) On January 22, 2009, Spektor performed at the third annual Roe On The Rocks gig at the Bowery Ballroom to raise money for Planned Parenthood New York City. Also, continuing with her support for Tibet, Regina Spektor played for Tibet House's annual concert at Carnegie Hall on February 26, 2010. Less than one month later, on March 23, 2010, Spektor gave a concert at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in New York City to raise funds for the work of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. Also, on April 27, she released a cover of Radiohead's song " No Surprises " with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders to help the earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile.

Discography

2001: 11:11 (Regina Spektor album)|11:11

2002: Songs (Regina Spektor album)|Songs

2004: Soviet Kitsch

2006: Begin to Hope

2009: Far (album)|Far

2012: What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions							Album
Year	Single	U.S.	UK	IRE	AUS	NZ	BEL	SWE	Album
2004	Carbon Monoxide "	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Soviet Kitsch
2004	"Your Honour / The Flowers"	—	104	—	—	—	—	—
2006	Us "	—	81	—	—	—	—	—
	On the Radio "	—	60	—	—	—	—	—	Begin to Hope
	Fidelity "	51	45	—	50	16	—	—
2007	Hotel Song "	—	—	16	—	—	—	—
	Samson "	—	174	—	—	—	30	29
	Better "	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2009	" Laughing With "	14*	—	—	—	—	34	—	Far (album)
2009	" Eet "	—	—	—	79	—	—	—	Far (album)
2010	No Surprises "	—	—	—	96	—	—	—	charity download
"—" denotes singles that did not chart. * Hot 100 Singles Sales ; did not chart on Billboard Hot 100

Awards

Begin to Hope – Shortlist Music Prize (nominated)

Studio8's Female Voice of August 2009 (won)

Copyright Citations

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Regina Spektor Photo by: www.demodaze.com


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