Evelina Petrova (; born 27 May 1974, in

Kingisepp Kingisepp ( or ), formerly Yamburg (), Yam (), and Yama (; Votic language, Votic: Jaama), is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located along the ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) is a Russian composer and accordion player.

Life and career

«At the Queen Elizabeth Hall, I found myself listening open-mouthed to a Russian woman playing the piano accordion while making wordless vocal sounds into a microphone. Her name was Evelina Petrova and the sounds varied from whoops and bird-like twitterings to a kind of demented lamentation. God knows what it was all about, but it had me transfixed..» Dave Gelly, THE GUARDIAN

Evelina Petrova graduated from the Saint Petersburg Musical College and after that studied at Theater Academy in Vyacheslav Gayvoronsky’s class "The Theater of Musical Improvisation". She actively participated in all academic activities provided by Prof. Gayvoronsky. She began with ensembles performances and eventually joined Gayvoronsky in a duo. In 2002, Evelina graduated from

Saint Petersburg State Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members ...

with a classical accordionist degree. Since 1997, Evelina has been performing in duo with V. Gayvoronsky (trumpet). In October 1998 at the Firth International Astor Piazzolla Competition in

Castelfidardo Castelfidardo ( Marchigiano: ''Castello'') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Ancona, in the Marche region of central-eastern Italy. It is remembered for a Piedmontese victory over an army composed of foreign volunteers defending the ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, the duo was awarded the special prize for original music style. In 1999, by vote of Russian music critics Evelina Petrova was awarded the title of the Star of the Year. Starting from 2001, Evelina has been playing with a

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

musician Victor Sobolenko (cello). The duo has recorded an album called "The Northern Tango" with original music by V. Sobolenko in tango style with jazz elements. Besides her other projects, Evelina is performing solo. The first solo album «Year’s Cycle» where she introduced herself not only as a musician, but also as a composer was released in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 2004 (

Leo Records Leo Records is a British record company and label, founded in 1979, which releases jazz from Russian, American and British musicians. It concentrates on free jazz. This label is different from the Leo Records that was formed by Edward Vesala i ...

). The album’s twelve compositions represent twelve months of the year. After "Year’s Cycle" solo album Evelina looked for the concepts for her new albums and for new co-performers. In 2007 and 2009, Leo Records released two new CDs by Evelina Petrova: "Upside down" with

Alexander Balanescu Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...

, one of the most original and unpredictable musicians of our time, and "Living water" which contains music from Evelina’s performance with a dancer Tanya Khabarova. This is one of Evelina’s experimental projects with Tanya, and it’s based on mythology, fairytales, and pagan rituals of ancient Russia.

Performances and collaborations with other musicians

* Jethro Tull *

* Phil Milton * Slava Gayvoronsky * Iva Bittova * Viktor Sobolenko * Bert Van Laethem * Miniature Musical Circus (UK) * Tanya Khabarova (theater Derevo) * Gisele Edwards (rope artist, UK)

Current projects

* Project with

(violin, GB) /www.balanescu.com/ * Performance "Timing of butterfly" with Tanya Khabarova (theater DEREVO) * Project with Viktor Sobolenko (cello, Russia) "The Northern Tango"/www.sobolenko.narod.ru/ * Collaboration projects by SOUNDUK (England) with Alexander Balanescu and Miniature Musical Circus (London)- "The Others". «Ties» with aerialist Gisele Edwards and director Emma Bernard (UK). * Live performances with black-white masterpieces: "Faust" by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926, Germany; "The Unknown" Director Tod Browning, 1927, USA; short animation films by Lotte Rainiger. * Composition "Vocalize" ("Shout" on the CD "Upside Down")was featured in the film "The Best of Times" by Svetlana Proskurina. * Collaborates with Fashion House "Lilia Kisselenko" (St.Petersburg) as a composer /www.kisselenko.ru/

Discography

* "Living water" Leo Records 2009 * "Upside down" Leo Records 2007 * «Year’s cycle» Leo Records 2004 * "The northern tango" St. Petersburg 2002 * "Homeless songs" Solyd Records 2001 * «Chonyi Together» Leo Records 1999 * «Postfactum» Solyd Records 1999

References

External links

Evelina Petrova official website

Evelina Petrova on MySpace

Evelyn Petrova Year's Cycle (Leo) by Matthew Sumera

Evelyn Petrova. Living Water album rewiev.

Evelyn Petrova. Living Water album review by Henry Lauer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrova, Evelina 1974 births Living people Russian women composers Russian accordionists Russian women accordionists 21st-century Russian women musicians