Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 12/27/2009

Support Women Artists Sunday: Regina Spektor

A veteran of New York’s anti-folk scene, songwriter Regina Spektor makes quirky, highly eclectic, but always personal music. Born and raised in Moscow until age nine, Spektor listened to her father’s bootleg tapes of Western pop and rock as a young child and also learned to play piano. She and her family moved from Russia to the Bronx, where she was immersed in American culture (at the time, hers was the first Russian family in the borough in 20 years). Eventually, Spektor and her family became part of a community that balanced her Russian Jewish roots with her new home’s culture. Meanwhile, she continued to practice piano anywhere she could, including at her synagogue, until her family got a piano of their own.

Spektor further developed her classical piano training by attending the SUNY Purchase Music Conservatory. At the same time, she was also playing gigs anywhere she could in the city, in venues ranging from basements to parties to comedy clubs. Spektor developed a following that included Alan Bezozi, They Might Be Giants’ drummer.

Tours with the Strokes, Kings of Leon, Mates of State, and the Moldy Peaches’ Kimya Dawson further raised Spektor’s profile. She also toured the U.K. That summer, Begin to Hope, her first album of original material for Sire, arrived. Begin to Hope enjoyed popularity on both sides of the Atlantic and went gold in America, where it also cracked the Top 20. After taking several years to tour and compose new material, Spektor returned in 2009 with Far

via StarPulse

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