Elena E.

Elena is a multi-talented artist, who boasts a diverse mix of influences and life experiences, which she draws on to craft her highly eclectic—and highly engaging—body of work. While her forthcoming debut album, “Dark Tales”, may be the first time many have heard of her, she is neither new to composing nor performing.

Growing up in a close-knit musical household in her native Russia, Elena began displaying her latent talents as a young girl. Her first performance for an audience was singing for a family friend’s wedding party at the age of 3, and by age 5, she was enrolled into Music and Art School where she was studying choir singing, dancing, English and art. Her grandmother was an English teacher and she was instrumental in little Elena's development as a well-rounded individual by accompanying her to her music and art lessons and always being a dedicated listener when it came time to practice. Soon Elena began to regularly appear on stages, competing against performers years older, and often enough, winning first prize. Beginning in her hometown of Kursk, and later in Moscow, Elena was classically trained not only as a vocalist, but also as a pianist.

Later, while embracing the music of the composers she studied in her classes at Kursk College of Music, such as Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Debussy, Elena was also enticed by the music from the West such as the Spice Girls, Britney Spears, and Cristina Aguilera, as well as the burgeoning Russian metal and punk/rock bands like Aria, Zemfira, and Korol i Shut. Around the same time she was introduced into the world of jazz by her teacher and mentor Boris Prusakov who invited Elena to sing with his jazz band. From Sade to Stevie Wonder to Ella Fitzgerald, the band performed various tunes from the jazz standards book on stages of Kursk.

Very soon the next destination for Elena was Moscow where she studied Show Production in the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts while performing in restaurants and clubs to support herself and plan for a big trip to New York City.

To be able to succeed on her own terms, performing the kind of music she truly loved, Elena knew that she had to go to America. But when she told her family and friends of her dream, she may as well have told them she wanted to go to Jupiter. It simply was not something her circle envisioned her doing.

Never one to be told something couldn’t be done, Elena found a way to make this dream come true, and in 2009 found herself alone, but also full of ambition, in the strange and exciting land of New York City. She initially found work performing cover songs to backing tracks in the restaurants and clubs of Brighton Beach. But while she delighted the Russian immigrants who made up the clientele of these clubs, Elena did not leave her family and friends behind simply to perform the same songs that would have afforded her such minor recognition in her own homeland. Quickly, she moved to fronting a string of original projects, from R&B focused girl groups, to hard rock and metal bands such as Relics, Wolf Clan, and Zoo Dog. Around the same time Elena's musical horizons were broadening, after being exposed to artists such as Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Stolen Babies, Tori Amos, Paula Cole, Muse and Garbage. But while NYC offered ample opportunity to perform, the logistics of day to day economic survival in the big apple of the twenty-teens were truly daunting. In the end, Elena still wanted to perform her own music, in her own way. Clearly, another move needed to be made. And this is how in 2015, Elena then found herself in the resurgent, rust-belt city of Buffalo, NY.

While in the short term, Elena again found an outlet performing in cover projects in her new home city, the focus was now firmly on developing the songs that would form the basis of her first solo project. When the Covid related shut downs of 2020 put a damper on any live performance, they also provided the time needed to shape these new songs, which skillfully blend elements of the classical, pop, rock and metal genres she had loved since her teens, along with the jazz and alternative music she now also found herself drawn to. In addition, this new material also drew on Elena’s deep interest in the paranormal and unexplained, and demonstrate her inspiration by the works of David Lynch, Salvador Dali, Guillermo del Toro, Tim Burton, and all things weird and wonderful. The result is Elena’s debut album, “Dark Tales”, an intoxicating musical cocktail featuring tales of vampires, aliens, vintage animatronics, and exotic locales. The album, funded in large part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, is written, and self-produced by Elena E. 

Elena’s work is boldly crossing genres, and defying expectations. Find out for yourself by exploring the enchanting world of "Dark Tales".