Album Notes

Elya Finn is a singer songwriter.
Born in a small village in Siberia. Elya Finn began singing as soon as she could speak. She remembers walking around her village at two years old, in a long winter coat, holding on to her father's hand while singing traditional folk songs to the amusement of her neighbors.
Elya Finn was destined for a life of music. Both her father and mother were singers. Her uncles and cousins were skilled in piano, guitar, and
balailaka. Her entire, large, extended family was musical, and gathered together in the evenings to sing traditional songs. They all continuously performed in community events.
At 4 1/2 Elya was enrolled in music school where she began learning piano.
At 14 Elya and attended Music College. She spent 4 years learning classical piano. Then, at 17, Elya had her greatest introduction to North American music when she became a member of a Jazz ensemble. She fell in love with Gershwin, and "Rhapsody in Blue" is still one of her favorites.
After graduation from Music College Elya set her eyes on Moscow. During her time in Moscow Elya earned her Master's in World Literature and Linguistics , joined a band that played popular Russian music, and attended a Jazz College to learn Jazz composition. As she grew as a musician, she learned European pop songs while listening to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.
During one of the major waves of emigration from Russia to the United States Elya went directly to San Francisco, California. Once in the USA, she began to discover her talent for song composition although while in Russia, throughout all her training and practice, Elya never wrote songs, only did arrangements. As she describes it, one day she began humming a melody and wondered where this melody came from. It took her several days to realize it was her own a melody she created. After this, she started writing songs and couldn't stop, and hasn't stopped writing since.
Elya's song "The Fair"(written with Michael Rothenberg) was nominated "The best song of the year 2003" in the West Coast Songwriters Competition.
Known as " The Russian Princess" Elya Finn performs her original songs around the San Francisco Bay Area, and continues to teach classical piano, jazz, vocals, songwriting and composition.