Vjola: World on Four Strings by Ljova

Employing skills honed alongside Yo-Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet and Osvaldo Golijov, Ljova mixes rustic dances and evocative soundscapes, all crafted from little more than the gorgeously grainy purr of his fiddle."

-- Steve Smith, Time Out New York

This debut release of maverick composer, arranger, and violist Ljova (Lev Zhurbin) draws on a multitude of cross-cultural influences, and is performed almost exclusively on multi-tracked viola. In addition to a

busy career as a performer and film composer, Ljova is a frequent collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, the Kronos Quartet, Osvaldo Golijov, as well as many other independent artists.

From blues to Bjork, to Latin and Gypsy dances, to a nostalgic Russian street-waltz (featuring Michael Ward-Bergeman on accordion), Ljova pushes the boundaries on his instrument. Using inventive improvisation and arranging techniques, his compositions dazzle with intricate textures, odd rhythms and lilting melodies, creating music that is both fresh and timeless.

"This album is a travelogue of sorts, though most journeys didn’t take me much further than the Island of Manhattan. It is a dedication to the ever-changing neighborhoods of New York City, its diverse cultures, and of course its illustrious musicians, from whom I draw much of my inspiration. Everything you hear on this album (with the exception of Michael's accordion on "Garmoshka", and the synth bass on "Breadbasket Blues") was recorded by myself on a viola. Each instrumental part was recorded separately, one after the other, and most arrangements were improvised from rough sketches. The choice of using viola as a multi-track instrument was as much artistic as it was a matter of convenience – the ensemble was cheap, hungry for a new sound, and very much of a similar mind. I hope you’ll enjoy the music and the journey!"

---Ljova

LJOVA (Lev Zhurbin) was born in 1978 in Moscow, Russia, and moved to New York with his parents, composer Alexander Zhurbin and poet Irena Ginzburg, in 1990. He divides his time between performing as a violist in diverse groups ranging from string quartets to jazz combos and gypsy bands, studying and arranging world music, and composing original music for film, TV, and the concert stage.

This is Ljova's debut album of original music. Previously, he has recorded with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon, and with The Andalucian Dogs on Ayre, featuring the music of Berio and Golijov. He has performed with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and tap dancer Savion Glover.

As an arranger, Ljova has completed dozens of arrangements for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the Kronos Quartet, Bond, and others. Resulting from these collaborations are arrangements of musics from Azerbaijian, China, India, Iran, Japan, Russia, Tanzania, as well as gypsy music from Romania and France.

As a composer, Ljova is the author of more than 70 compositions for classical, jazz, and folk ensembles, as well as scores to two features and over a dozen shorts. In 2005, Ljova was one of six fellows participating in the Sundance Institute's Film Composers Lab.

Ljova is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he was a pupil of Samuel Rhodes.

"...[Ljova] is an extraordinarily talented and versatile musician, who has an incredible understanding of the intricacies of the imaginative mind."

---Yo-Yo Ma, cellist

"I am simply in awe of Lev's talents. He is one of the outstanding exponents of a new generation of musicians that I consider, in a good sense, mutants. Equally at home in a chamber group or symphony orchestra playing the canon of the literature or the most complex modernistic settings, or imaginatively improvising on folk melodies with musicians from around the world, Lev proves that an integration between seemingly different cultures is possible, inevitable, and fruitful. He and the other leaders of his generation are, in my view, the people that will ensure that music remains vital to the minds and hearts of a wide spectrum of people.

As a composer, arranger and violist, Lev reconnects with the tradition of composer-performer-improviser that was the norm in the past and is fortunately coming back. He does all his work at an extraordinary level."

---Osvaldo Golijov, composer

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