"Stories from Paris"

"Elena et les garcons" is a well-known multilingual project. On 2 April, the band will present the French musical programme "Stories from Paris" on the stage of the Cultural Centre "Mir".

The founder and soloist of the group Elena Lipaeva is a polyglot. She was born and grew up in Europe and has devoted a lot of time to learning languages since her childhood. French is as native to her as Russian. Elena is also fluent in English, Italian, Spanish, German and Georgian.

Elena, how did you come up with the idea of creating such an unusual creative team? What is its special feature?

- The idea was born gradually. At first, I just put together a team to perform, like many soloists do. Quite logically, we started with jazz, since all the musicians came to the team from the jazz school. And initially, only French music was in the repertoire. When the French programme became cramped, we thought: why not to use all the advantages, for not so many vocalists speak the languages they sing in. And our soloist speaks several languages and does not sing in them - we need to fix this! So the programme has expanded and we have involved all seven languages that I currently know in the project. Actually, this is our main feature - knowing the language of any piece in our repertoire. Hence, the exact understanding of the meaning and the correct pronunciation, without accent or mistakes. That is why, today, there are no analogues to our project in the country.

But at the same time, the French programme remains a calling card. Why?

- As I have already mentioned, we started with the French programme. It was the first and it was with this repertoire that many of our listeners first recognized and remembered us.

And it all started with French music, because this language has been with me since early childhood, as well as Russian. Yes, and the music we perform has been familiar to me since my childhood, too. Perhaps, I had probably got to know French pop music even earlier than I did Soviet or Russian.

How would you describe the concert "Stories from Paris"?

- This is a kind of excursion into the history of French music of the 20th and even a little of the 21st century. This concert differs from our other programmes in that it is more theatrical, although there is also a bit of pop. It varies greatly in terms of genre, dynamics, moods and emotions we try to convey through songs. I find it very atmospheric and the feedback from our audience is that they often feel they have been transported back to France. I hope that we will be able to give the audience in Dubna a little musical trip to Paris.

Please, tell us about the musical team. Who performs the programme on stage with you?

"Absolutely wonderful musicians. Each of them is a real artist and at the same time an integral part of the team. They are the pianist Nikolay Khomenko, both a composer and leader of his own band, the guitarist Aleksandr Kuchin that plays in the Russian State Symphony Orchestra of Cinematography, the bassist Mikhail Lutskov that has played in five different orchestras and today, performs with many Russian pop stars, besides us and the drummer Valery Dedov, the very first musician in our team that has been working with us for 10 years and at the same time plays in the Orchestra of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as teaches children.

Interviewed by Eleonora Yamaleeva