LENA E GANJOULA

LENA E GANJOULA

Elena V. Ganjoula was born and raised in Moscow, and has spent a lifetime in music. At the age of four, she was chosen to study at the prestigious Gnessin School of Music, a Mecca for musically gifted children, studying piano and music theory as well as academic subjects.

I met Elena in a bar. Ok, that bears some explanation. Elena was actually an invited guest to our monthly client appreciation party at Crustacean in Beverly Hills. My real estate partner John Campbell and I like to mingle with friends, clients and people we want to know at these get togethers. I spotted Elena in the bar area and recognized her immediately. She’s hard to miss. I introduced myself and within minutes we were fast friends. She’s striking lady and very smart. After a delightful twenty minute conversation I asked her if I could interview her for RCM. She agreed but insisted I write above her mother as well, who I later learned was a very accomplished artist. Her green eyes flashed and I realized I was had. Here are the two stories of a talented daughter and her talented mother.

When were you first introduced to the piano? Were you encouraged or discouraged by family, friends, teachers, mentors?

It started because my Grandma bought an ornate looking AUERBACH piano in Germany. After World War II they stayed at Joseph Goebbels ( Reich Minister of Propaganda for Nazi Germany ) house for 7 years. She wanted to make sure her first grandchild will play piano and that was me!… and that’s how my life was decided.

What were your influences?

I grew up watching my mom painting, oils on canvas. My childhood books were Goya, Raphael, Rubens, Renoir and other master artists. Later on, I traveled all over the world. I was especially impressed by the Prado in Madrid. I was like a kid in a candy store, I saw large collections of Goya , Rubens, Raphael and El Greco paintings. I also love Photography. I studied in Santa Monica for two years.

I learn how to work in Photoshop. My love of photography started in my childhood, thanks to my mom. We spent lots of hours together in a “Dark Room” (our apartment bathroom ) developing photos!

One more thing I really enjoy drawing caricatures. It started with my mom, when she worked as an illustrator in German newspaper NEUES LEBEN .

Perhaps the greatest influence on me was traveling all over the world ! I spent time on the Island of Majorca, Spain, where Chopin spent harsh winters with George Sand (French feminist, novelist ), Bonn, Germany - I was at the house where Beethoven was born, Zalzburg, Austria - Mozart ...etc

What kind of kid were you?

Elena did her first public performance when she was five years old. In 1984 she won 1st place and the grand prize in the Moscow National competition of music schools. Later she performed as a soloist with various distinguished orchestras.

I studied at Gnessins school and Institute - home of world famous composer Aram Khachaturian. I was in the same class with world renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin. We sat at the same desk and he had a crush on me when we were 11 years old.

Believe it or not I took private lessons with 61 teachers, some of them were famous Russian pianists like - Sviatoslav Richter , Emil Gilles, My professor Oleg Boshnyakovitch ( from K. Igumnov class ) and many more followers of famous Heinrich Neuhaus pianist/ teacher/piano style founder.

What kind of work do you do now?

I’ve played on 3 Spiderman soundtracks. I’ve worked with Sharon Stone’s kids, Bob Marley‘s grandchildren, John Tesh’s daughter, Marvin Davis’ grandchildren, Richard Sakai ( The Simpsons ), and Christopher Young- composer of Spider Man 3. I did an album which was produced by John Tesh.

At that time I worked at a ballet company as accompanist , when John Tesh came to me and gave his phone number written on a napkin with the offer to record my first solo record at Tim Heintz studio. The album she recorded with Mr. Tesh was “Classical Music for a Prayerful Moment”, released on Mother’s Day under Tesh’s Faith MD music label. The remarkable performance features the romantic works of Russian composers Rachmaninoff, Borodim, Lyadov and Tchaikovsky,

Elena’s outstanding career has included performances for royalty. In 2009, she was engaged to play for The Grand Dame of Japan, Princess Susan of Croatia, Princess Stephanie of Belgium, Prince Paolo of Brazil, Prince Farouk of Egypt, Prince Hugo of Russia among other dignitaries.

Tell us about your involvement with the Michigan football team.

I was also involved with the Michigan Wolverines Football program thru my ex fiancé (contributor to Michigan Athletic Department - he built Michigan Stadium, the second largest stadium in the world ) I met every athletic director and coaches including recent one -Jim Harbaugh. It was exciting.

Elena lives and works in Beverly Hills, her statement about music is simple and elegant. “Music is a lifelong joy, as natural and necessary as breathing.

MUSIC ART

Mother and Daughter

RAISSA LATYCH

Captivating flights of fancy and symbolism propel the surrealism of Raissa Latych into an exhilarating plane of aesthetic regard.

Born in Stavropol,Russia, Latsych graduated from the Industrial Art College of Moscow and received her Masters Degree in Art from that city’s Stroganoff Institute of Art. During her student years she worked as a graphic artist for Pravda and the German newspaper Neues Leben; also illustrating for a film company. Latych became known for her work with the famous Doll Theater and as a designer of camera bodies and toys. She was commissioned for a trio of thirty square foot murals by a scientific research company and for the design of the stone statuary which graces the city of Krasnogorsk, where she presided as general manager of that municipality’s principal gallery. Presently an instructor at the School of Art in Moscow. She has presented her work at numerous exhibitions in Russia and the United States.

“In my motivation for painting, I am continually enveloped by the natural world and our responsibility to it’s ecology. My love for nature is rooted in a childhood spent in a simple village in the countryside where I learned to respect nature and strive to live in harmony with it.

Though I’ve spent my adult life in Moscow, my heart belongs to those faraway fields of green and summer streams. All of my youthful feelings and impressions of life are what urge me on to paint. I find that symbolism is the closest thing to freedom of a child’s unspoiled outlook of life and so it is also my chosen form of expression.”