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Yelena Eckemoff

Yelena Eckemoff is an internationally renowned Russian-born pianist, composer, poet, and visual artist who organically blends classical elements with jazz improvisation in evocative and uniquely distinctive works that strike a delicate balance between through-composed frameworks and open-ended exploration and improvisation. Eckemoff is highly prolific composer and recording artist who produces the albums that are listed worldwide among the best releases of a year. Each release has its own charm and expression, involving the greatest celebrities of the world jazz scene, but always bears the personal signature of the composer/pianist. Yelena Eckemoff is a virtuoso pianist who played numerous piano solo recitals and lead her various all-star bands performing at prestigious venues, including Birdland NYC, Jazz Standard, Saint Peter’s Church, and Ronnie Scotts in London.

Her career can be divided into halves: Before 2009, she focused primarily on classical, folk, and sacred music as well as jazz, and after where jazz became her primary mode of expression— albeit still classically informed and occasionally tinged with experimental rock. The 2013 album Glass Song is widely regarded as her most important recording.

Eckemoff was born in Moscow and began playing the piano by ear at four. A year later, she was formally studying with her mother, a professional pianist. At seven, she attended Gnessins State Musical College, a school for gifted children, and after high school, studied classical piano at Moscow State Conservatory. After completing a Master's degree in piano performance and pedagogy, she worked as a piano teacher in a Moscow music school, gave solo concerts, attended courses at the Moscow Jazz Studio, played in an experimental jazz-rock band, and composed instrumental and vocal music.

In 1991, Eckemoff emigrated to the United States with her husband. While assimilating in her adopted country and raising children, she put her musical career on hold, but still worked at music itself whenever possible. She founded her own piano school and served as a church choir director. She experimented with synthesizer and MIDI sequencer in her tiny home studio, then formed a working ensemble from a pool of local musicians. She self-released some 13 albums in various genres including classical, vocal, folk, Christian, and original music, all through her own label, L & H Production.

In 2010, she issued the album Cold Sun, that signaled her shift to jazz in a trio setting, with American drummer Peter Erskine and Danish bassist Mads Vinding. Based on a winter theme (all her subsequent albums would be conceptual), the set explored improvisation within the setup of the jazz piano trio in four extended pieces that alternated with six slightly shorter, more straightforward jazz tunes. Chosen as one of the finest recordings of the year, reviews of the recording compared it favorably with the gold standard: ECM's many recordings of piano trios.

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Multiple Reviews

Yelena Eckemoff And Cory Smythe: Imagination Unbound

Read "Yelena Eckemoff And Cory Smythe: Imagination Unbound" reviewed by Doug Collette


Yelena Eckemoff and Cory Smythe have configured mirror images in music that reflect global mindsets of race, gender and class in the wake of COVID lockdowns and in the midst of climate change (among other controversies). The former postulates an insular existence populated only by a single individual and a sole figure with whom he finds empathy, while the latter formulates a world vision from a single point of view scanning the boundaries of culture(s). In keeping with the various ...

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Radio & Podcasts

New Music From Yelena Eckemoff, Arturo O'Farrill, Lauren Henderson, Melissa Pipe, Cecilia Smith & More

Read "New Music From Yelena Eckemoff, Arturo O'Farrill, Lauren Henderson, Melissa Pipe, Cecilia Smith & More" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast includes new releases from pianists Yelena Eckemoff, Arturo O'Farrill, vibraphonist Cecilia Smith, vocalist Lauren Henderson, saxophonist Melissa Pipe and a special song cycle by lyricist David Hajdu featuring Theo Bleckmann, Alicia Olatuja and Dan Tepfer, plus birthday shoutouts to Roxy Coss, Wendy Kirkland, Judy Wexler, Rosa Passos, Kendra Shank and Lara Downes, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to ...

47
Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Lonely Man and His Fish

Read "Lonely Man and His Fish" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


A Moscow-raised, classically-trained pianist, Yelena Eckemoff made the move to the United States in 1991, after being bitten by the jazz bug via a Dave Brubeck concert she attended in Moscow in 1987. In 2010, after settling with her family in rural North Carolina, she released Cold Sun (L & H Records), a trio outing featuring bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Peter Erskine. She followed up this fine debut with several more albums, all on her L & H Label, ...

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Liner Notes

Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World

Read "Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Russian-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began setting verses from the Bible's Book of Psalms shortly after her conversion to Christianity, even before her emigration to the United States. But she waited until she had considerable experience working with jazz musicians before producing her jazz arrangements. They were first recorded on her album Better Than Gold and Silver [L&H Production, 2018], which presented ten Psalm settings in both vocal and instrumental versions. The detailed story of how Yelena Eckemoff came to set ...

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Colors live at KITO Bremen

Read "Colors live at KITO Bremen" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Composer and pianist Yelena Eckemoff's Colors (L&H Production, 2019) was a duet with drummer Manu Katché, a unique instrumentation in her ever-growing list of works. His contributions were so singular that when she had an opportunity to celebrate the album release by playing the music live at KITO in Bremen, Germany in 2019, and he could not make the gig, she opted to play solo rather than hire another drummer. It was the first time in about 15 years that ...

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Adventures of the Wildflower

Read "Adventures of the Wildflower" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


The last time composer/pianist Yelena Eckemoff recorded in Finland she led a quintet on Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H Production, 2017). The program was devoted to smells, particularly the phlox flower and other scents remembered from childhood. Here she returns to Finland with a sextet (including several returning players, basically the entire rhythm section) and a related concept: the life cycle of a wildflower. The mood of the music is well captured in the smiling band photo on the back of ...

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Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Adventures of the Wildflower

Read "Adventures of the Wildflower" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The seeds of pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff's Adventures Of The Wildflower were planted in 2013, when she traveled to Hollola, Finland, to record Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H Productions, 2017) with a group of young Finnish musicians. Several Eckemoff albums came about after that recording, but the experience with her Finnish friends must have exerted a sort of gravitational pull, and in 2019 she made a return trip to the country to team with vibraphonist Panu Savolainen, bassist Antti Lotjonen and drummer ...

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Recording

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff Takes An Intriguing New Direction With 'Romance Of The Moon,' To Be Released May 10 By L&H Production

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff Takes An Intriguing New Direction With 'Romance Of The Moon,' To Be Released May 10 By L&H Production

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Pianist-composer-conceptualist Yelena Eckemoff tries something a little bit different—but no less cerebral and audacious—with Romance of the Moon, set for a May 10 release on her own L&H Production label. Always a multimedia thinker, Eckemoff has previously made albums that incorporate her visual art as well as stories, poems, and concepts from her own imagination. This time, she presents a suite of compositions inspired by the great Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, as interpreted by the formidable Italian ensemble that ...

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Recording

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff Presses Forward With Her Bold, Conceptual Vision Of Jazz On 'Lonely Man And His Fish,' Due April 28

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff Presses Forward With Her Bold, Conceptual Vision Of Jazz On 'Lonely Man And His Fish,' Due April 28

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff's body of elaborate, ambitious jazz concept albums reaches a new virtuosic summit with Lonely Man and His Fish, to be released April 28 on her own L&H Production label. A double-CD set, the album is also a long-form parable, a story of deep affection between a human and his beloved pet. An all-star lineup—cornetist Kirk Knuffke, flutist Masaru Koga, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Eric Harland—helps Eckemoff breathe life into the tale. Eckemoff, who is an artist ...

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Recording

Composer-Pianist Yelena Eckemoff's 'I Am A Stranger In This World,' Second Installment Of Her Biblical Psalms Project, To Be Released May 20

Composer-Pianist Yelena Eckemoff's 'I Am A Stranger In This World,' Second Installment Of Her Biblical Psalms Project, To Be Released May 20

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff adds to her already impressive corpus of settings for the Psalms on I Am a Stranger in This World, due for a May 20 release on her own L&H Production label. The album is a new installment in a long-term musical project that began with 2018’s Better Than Gold and Silver, and once again teams Eckemoff with that album’s trumpeter Ralph Alessi and bassist Drew Gress, along with guitarist Adam Rogers and drummer Nasheet Waits. (Violinist Christian ...

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Recording

Yelena Eckemoff Intensifies Her Conceptual Approach To Music With 'Adventures Of The Wildflower,' Set For March 19 Release

Yelena Eckemoff Intensifies Her Conceptual Approach To Music With 'Adventures Of The Wildflower,' Set For March 19 Release

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff unfurls her most elaborate and ambitious musical work yet with Adventures of the Wildflower, which her own L&H Production label will release on March 19, 2021. As its title suggests, the double album is the story of a life, from birth to death (and rebirth), of an anthropomorphic columbine flower. Its story is told through the inspired work of Eckemoff and a Finnish ensemble that includes saxophonist Jukka Perko, multi-instrumentalist Jarmo Saari, vibraphonist Panu Savolainen, bassist Antti ...

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Recording

Yelena Eckemoff Presents An Exploration Of The Nighttime Animal Kingdom On "Nocturnal Animals," Set For January 24 Release By Her L&H Production Label

Yelena Eckemoff Presents An Exploration Of The Nighttime Animal Kingdom On "Nocturnal Animals," Set For January 24 Release By Her L&H Production Label

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff adds another link to her chain of thoughtful concept albums with Nocturnal Animals, which her own L&H Production imprint will release on January 24. True to its title, the double album features 14 musical impressions of the creatures that rule the night. The pieces are brought to life by a quartet that places Eckemoff alongside bassist Arild Andersen and drummers Jon Christensen and Thomas Strønen. Eckemoff is fond of creating these sorts of sonic portrait galleries. Prior ...

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Recording

Yelena Eckemoff Presents A Journey Through The Human Life Span On "Colors," Set For Feb. 22 Release

Yelena Eckemoff Presents A Journey Through The Human Life Span On "Colors," Set For Feb. 22 Release

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff casts her eye on the visible spectrum with Colors, her third album in just over a year, set for a February 22 release on her own L&H Production label. Accompanied only by the brilliant French drummer Manu Katché, Eckemoff creates musical impressions of 14 distinct hues, organizing them into a symbolic progression through the stages of life—using a panoply of styles as diverse as the spectrum itself. Colors is both a popular title and subject in the ...

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Recording

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff To Release "Better Than Gold And Silver," Her Jazz Settings Of Biblical Psalms, Sept. 21

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff To Release "Better Than Gold And Silver," Her Jazz Settings Of Biblical Psalms, Sept. 21

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

The prolific Russian-born, North Carolina-based pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff adds a sacred dimension to the ambitious series of concept albums in her extensive catalogue her new 2-CD set Better Than Gold and Silver. Due for September 21 release on her imprint L&H Production, it’s the first in a projected series of recordings featuring Eckemoff’s settings of Biblical psalms. The new album includes both vocal and instrumental versions of 10 songs she conceived as works of modern jazz rather than part of ...

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Recording

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff Evokes Mystery & Allure Of Arabian Desert On Quartet Outing "Desert," Set For May 4 Release

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff Evokes Mystery & Allure Of Arabian Desert On Quartet Outing "Desert," Set For May 4 Release

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

It takes a discerning eye, or in this case ear, to envision the desert as more than a vast, arid wasteland. Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff succeeds in musically portraying many of this daunting environment’s mysteries and its boundless allure on her new recording, Desert, to be released May 4 on her imprint L&H Production. The quartet outing, the latest in the impressive series of concept albums at the core of the prolific Russian-born, North Carolina-based keyboard virtuoso’s catalog, reunites her with ...

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Recording

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff recollects Childhood In Russia through "Sense Of Smell" On Blooming Tall Phlox, Featuring An All-Finnish Lineup Of Young Rising Stars

Pianist/Composer Yelena Eckemoff recollects Childhood In Russia through "Sense Of Smell" On Blooming Tall Phlox, Featuring An All-Finnish Lineup Of Young Rising Stars

Source: DL Media

Available January 20, 2017 on L&H Production “Blessed with prodigious classical chops, Eckemoff's a gutsy, imaginative improviser. She's also a gifted composer who's devised a totally original take on the whole jazz-classical hybrid concept. Effortlessly modern, with nothing to prove beyond total involvement in the moment, Eckemoff presents a thoroughly modern, yet intimate and highly personal sound-world."— Dave Wayne, All About Jazz It's not uncommon to read about musicians—especially those who deal solely in instrumental music—struggling to come up with ...

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Recording

Pianist Yelena Eckemoff Reaches New Heights Working With The Norwegian Dream Team Of Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen, And Tore Brunborg On "Everblue"

Pianist Yelena Eckemoff Reaches New Heights Working With The Norwegian Dream Team Of Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen, And Tore Brunborg On "Everblue"

Source: All About Jazz

By Dan Bilawsky When pianist Yelena Eckemoff released Cold Sun (L & H Production, 2010)—a trio date with drumming legend Peter Erskine and Danish bass whiz Mads Vinding—the jazz world was introduced to a startlingly fresh voice destined for great things. Over the course of the six albums that followed, Eckemoff lived up to that promise, delivering organically-crafted music reflective of her classical background, fascination with the natural world, poetic soul, communicative spirit, and overall open-mindedness. Now, Eckemoff is poised ...

”Yelena Eckemoff has done something almost entirely new—she's created what could very well be considered a new musical genre—classical world improv, if a name must be put to it. Drawing mainly, perhaps, on classical music, she's figured out a way to seamlessly incorporate world, jazz, and chamber ensemble elements.

The result? Music of uncommon beauty and pathos.” —Jan Dennis, Amazon.com

“Eckemoff isn't as concerned with musical tradition as she is with actively capturing various creatures of sound, fusing them together and giving life to another breed of musical species.” —David Locklear, Go Triad magazine

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

Greensboro

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Romance of the Moon

L&H Production
2024

buy

Lonely Man and His...

L&H Production
2023

buy

I Am a Stranger in...

L&H Production
2022

buy

Colors live at KITO...

L&H Production
2022

buy

Adventures of the...

L & H Production
2021

buy

Nocturnal Animals

L&H Production
2020

buy

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