I Never Felt This Way Before by Elina

"

Reggie Workman

The personnel on this record are:

Elina Vasiltchikova-vocal

Joe Locke-vibes

Chembo Corniel-percussion

Misha Tsiganov-piano

Valtinho Anastacio-percussion

Cafe-percussion

Alex Sipiagin -trumpet

Andrei Ryabov-guitar

Gary Schreiner-harmonica

Dmitri Kolesnik-bass

Boris Kurganov-sax

Oleg Butman-drums

Mike Campenni-drums

Rouslan Khaine-bass

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan (former USSR), Elina Vasilchikova has been living and performing in the US since 1990. For the past 15 years, along with her singing career, Elina worked as an educator. She has brought up a generation of talented vocalists while teaching "Voice Technique Class" at the Jazz Faculty of The New School University.

Her new album is titled "I Never Felt This Way Before". The name of this album was anything but accidental: Elina was never before so ready to put her heart, talent, feelings, and all of her musical and life experiences into a single project.

"My album includes songs that have touched my heart,songs that are very personal," Elina says," Songs that I have chosen are revealing the story of my life."

This project includes rarely performed jazz standards, as well as Elina's original score. The first song, "Adios My Love" and the very last one, "I Never Felt This Way Before", were both written by the singer. In the last song, Elina also plays the piano.

Elina's love for music started when she received a toy piano as gift from her grandfather at the age of four. She performed in the kindergarten and played in front of the family and friends. Later her parents insisted that she auditioned for music school. At the age of twelve Elina put together a vocal ensemble, which was successful enough to win prizes at numerous prestigious festivals that were held in the Opera Theatre, Drama Theatre, and other venues in the city where she was born.

At the Music School, she trained in classical piano. Later on, she continued her education at Music College of "Asaph Zeinallue".

Her passion for classical music manifested itself in performing pieces by Rachmaninoff, Bach, Vivaldi, Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven, Grieg, and other greats. This infatuation also made it a difficult feat when it came to choosing between continuing to play piano or singing.

Ultimately, Elina realized that her real passion was voice.

Eventually, Elina graduated from School of St. Petersburg Music Hall. At the age of twenty, she became a principle vocalist, actress, and a dancer of the above named Theatre. There she adapted the image of jack-of-all-trades. It was a wonderful experience for the young artist to perform on this world-famous stage, but it was not enough for Elina, whose passionate love for jazz eventually lead her to Moscow.

The extent of Elina's performances is very broad: she collaborated with Jazz Big Band of Oleg Lundstrem, a brilliant pianist Leonid Chizhik, the Moscow State Orchestra of Radio & Television, St. Petersburg Orchestra of Radio & Television, "Friderikhstate Palace" (Germany),Baku State Orchestra of Radio and Television and played at venues in Italy, Germany, USA, Russia, Poland, Mongolia, and other concert halls all over the world.

In The US Elina worked and performed with such musicians as Joe Locke, Harvie Swartz, Benny Golson, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Marvin "Smitty" Smith,

Reggie Workman, Cliff Korman, Valtinho, Mike Campenni and members of Arturo Sandoval's band - Otmaro Ruiz and Aaron Serfaty. She performed with Misha Tsiganov, Andrei Ryabov, Igor and Oleg Butman, Dmitri Kolesnik and Alex Sipiagin (Mingus Band).

Elina's soothing velvet voice is sure to touch your heart. From the first sound, the notion of her great stage appearance and performance will amplify your perception of the art of music, word, and movement that this singer is so easily able to deliver to you.

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