Regina Spektor

With her unique voice and virtuosic piano skills, Regina Spektor first caught the attention of mainstream audiences with the major-label release of her album Soviet Kitsch in 2004. Born in Moscow, Russia in 1980, Spektor began studying piano at age seven and quickly became a serious student of the craft. Facing increased discrimination against Jewish families in the Soviet Union, Spektor's parents took advantage of the recent change in policy that allowed Soviet citizens to emigrate elsewhere in 1989 and relocated to the United States, settling in New York City. Spektor continued her piano studies and eventually began expanding beyond classical to write her own contemporary songs for voice and piano. She graduated from Purchase College's Conservatory of Music in 2001, finishing a four-year bachelor's program in three years, and quickly became a fixture in New York's "anti-folk" scene, self-releasing the albums 11:11 in 2001, Songs in 2002, and Soviet Kitsch in 2003. After touring with The Strokes in 2003 and 2004, Spektor was signed to Sire Records, which rereleased Soviet Kitsch to a wider audience, instantly increasing Spektor's notoriety to a national level. She earned even more acclaim for her next record, Begin to Hope, in 2006. Spektor would maintain her position as a celebrated musician with 2009's Far and 2012's What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, the latter of which found her returning to Russia for her first time since her childhood during a worldwide tour. She recorded the theme song to the acclaimed series "Orange is the New Black" (Netflix, 2013-), "You've Got Time," in 2013, and released her seventh album, Remember Us to Life, three years later. In 2019, Spektor played a prestigious five-night residency on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.