The Inside Story: Elena Dorozhkina and RUSSIAN PIANO GEMS

Renowned Russian-born, American pianist Elena Dorozhkina brings to life a selection of works by Mosolov, Glinka, Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff with unwavering passion and technical virtuosity on RUSSIAN PIANO GEMS. Torrential cascades of thunderous chords alternate with lightning-fast runs, breathless silences intermingle with sweet vulnerability, exaltation and loss are but a hair’s breadth apart. The playing time of these individual pieces might not seem very Russian, but their emotional depth certainly is.

Today, Elena is our featured artist in “The Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on to learn why she believes music has the power to transform the soul, and what she hopes listeners will gain from experiencing her debut album… 

What were your first and most significant musical experiences? 

I remember my younger self listening to a beautiful piece during my music literature class at a music school for young children. I felt so deeply involved with the music, so a few minutes later I was in tears because I felt something so big and powerful and simultaneously tragic in this music. At that moment I thought that I knew the emotions and feelings this music was expressing. Did I? I was only a child, though I felt that my response was just a reminder that the music was in me always, even since my birth. 

A few years ago in February 2018, I attended a concert series of piano concerti by Beethoven, performed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Jorge Federico Osorio as a piano soloist. I did not expect it, but I was sitting there mesmerized and could not even move as people around me were giving standing ovations. I was experiencing that special feeling of something big happening right before my ears and eyes. That was a moment of real music creation, co-creation of the genius’ music. The composer himself or even God was “speaking” to the audience through this marvelous performance. Therefore, there was a connection — or conversation — with the audience from both the soloist and the orchestra. The pianist was transmitting the meaning and emotions of the music piece to the audience. “That is how music should always be performed,” I thought that night. 

Throughout all of these years of my music journey, I have no doubt that a genuine and sincere music performance is a very powerful “art without words,” which can convert people’s souls into more loving and compassionate ones. 

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be? 

My collaborators would be musicians, who have similar feelings and means for music as I do, and so, they would understand that classical music has a deep meaning and impact on people’s mind and soul. They would be open to a dialogue and ready to listen, feel, and breathe together while musically collaborating, while open to trying different facets of a piece’s interpretation, though finally be ready to find one which will unite all of the collaborators on the same idea. They would understand that there are immortal musical pieces and true composers, even if they are little known, and there are popular pieces/composers which will be, most likely, forgotten within a decade or so. 

If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing? 

I love to be creative, spontaneous, and explore things such as different areas of arts, culinary/baking, and creating beauty and elegance in everything which surrounds me, for instance in my house (curtains, silverware, flowers, etc.) Therefore, I believe I would be doing well in things which are artistic, creative, crafty; anything which involves beauty at its highest so it brings joy to people and understanding that there is a place for a soul, not only bread in a daily life. If not a musician, perhaps I would be a designer, florist, painter, sculptor, actor, singer, ballerina, or a writer… 

What advice would you give to your younger self if given the chance? 

Since as a pianist I believe that a good piano playing is built on a good musicianship, I would give advice to younger self: 

Receive as much as possible personal experiences through collaboration with people, feeling different emotions, observing nature, and immersing in the arts. All of these “tools” would serve as a foundation for colorful imaginations and critical thinking which would stimulate the development of a thoughtful musician and performer. Remember that piano technique is built on what you musically think and what you wish to convey through the music, and which images and pictures you wish to draw by performing a piece. By knowing that any music piece has a melody first of all, even if it consists of only two notes, listen more to your playing to produce a good quality beautiful sound, a better legato, and listen to create a well-shaped, long musical phrase. Listen more to good singers, string, and wind players to learn from them how to “sing” on piano, just because they easily can create connected sounds on their instruments. Remember that playing piano should result in sets of natural motions because music is a most natural habit to humans. Therefore, think how you may use your apparatus in a more efficient and relaxed way to produce music on your instrument. 

What ideas and emotions do you hope listeners will experience after hearing your album? 

By combining these 10 pieces into my debut album, I wish more people would learn about these amazing and somewhat little-known piano gems. As an artist and piano interpreter featured in this album, I would like to promote the best traditions of piano playing, such as musical meaning and imagination, attention to a bel canto quality of a piano sound, emotional immersion into the music, so that an audience would actively perceive a performance, reflect, and respond. I hope that in this album I was able to speak emotions of love, pain, melancholy, grief, kindness, and warmth which are all conveyed in this fascinating music, from my heart to my listeners’ hearts.

What’s the greatest performance you’ve ever heard, and what made it special? 

I remember when I first heard the recording of the 20th century pianist, Vladimir Sofronitsky, performing piano pieces by R. Schumann and A. Scriabin. The whole new world of sounds and images had opened to me because of these recordings! It was a beautifully sounding “cosmos” which depicted tangible-like emotions and vivid pictures to me. The piano sounded as if it was shimmering with beautiful rainbow colors, singing as a human voice, sometimes deeply tragic, sometimes delicate, sometimes spontaneous, though always warm and inviting. 

Music, as an art which operates only by sounds, is the most pure and potent art to grasp human’s emotions. Thus, being an artist myself, I feel that a great performance should inspire, enrich, surprise, and involve emotional compassion, make listeners sink into the magic ocean of incredible musical sounds, and emerge the highest and most beautiful humane qualities. Nowadays we are experiencing professional performers turning into athletes or even technically perfect robots playing an instrument. I believe that a true artist-performer should be first of all a Musician with capital first letter, who possesses such qualities as to draw listeners’ attention to the main idea, the essence of the piece, to what a composer wanted to implicate through their creation, not to draw attention to a performer’s personal appearance or their technical abilities. An audience will always be hypnotized by a truly great performer’s personality which can always be heard throughout a meaningful reading of a composer’s music score. A true performer would captivate their listeners and immerse them into images, pictures, and stories conveyed in music, and leave them in a stunning emotional state to remember their recitals for weeks, months, and even years.