Regina Spektor

Russian-born singer-songwriter Regina Spektor has been compared to other female piano-tinklers Tori Amos and Fiona Apple. But to her Spektorite fans she has a unique voice, best expressed on 2006 album Begin to Hope.

Regina Spektor was born in Russia in 1980, but her parents moved to the US in 1989 and she rose to prominence in New York's anti-folk scene. Spektor studied classical music until she was 17 and went on to graduate from Purchase College in 2001. She found an audience in the NY East Village performing in venues associated with the newly emerging anti-folk scene. She sold CDs that she had recorded herself, concentrating on the sound of each track rather than conforming to one musical genre. Famed for her vocal style and her approach to music, her musical influences include classical, folk and even hip-hop.

A compilation of some of her early songs can be heard on Mary Ann meets the Gravediggers and other short stories by Regina Spektor. Her major breakthrough was the promising Soviet Kitsch (2004), while Begin to Hope (2006) won rave reviews and a Shortlist prize nomination.

Her music has also been used by TV and featured in CSI:NY and Grey's Anatomy.