Regina Spector was born in Moscow on February 18, 1980. She grew up in a musical family; her mother taught music at a Russian Music College and her father, a photographer, played the violin as an amateur.

She learned to play the piano and listened to her father’s selection of music by groups such as the Beatles, Queen and the Moody Blues. In 1989, the family left the Soviet Union and settled down in the Bronx, New York. She started taking classical piano lessons at the “Manhattan School of Music”.

She first started writing songs at the age of thirteen and moved to songs for piano and voice by the time she was eighteen. After graduating from college where she studied studio composition, she began singing at the anti-folk scene of downtown New York. During the same period, she composed songs for two self-produced CDs: “11.11” and “songs”.

Spector’s music is influenced by several styles and techniques. She is a prolific songwriter and has said that songs seem to flow from her. Her eclectic music is rooted in several musical traditions including Russian, classical music, Jewish, folk, hip-hop, and jazz. Her great vocal range allows her to apply different techniques in her songs. The lyrics are mostly English interspersed with words in Russian, Jewish and French. As a result of her love of New York, she uses a strong New York accent on some of her words. City life, love, death, and religion are the dominant themes in her lyrics. Contrary to the dry vocal characteristic of her earlier songs, her more recent albums are produced with more emphasis on pop and rock instrumentation and reflect increased attention to song production. She considers Frederic Chopin, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan among her many influences.

Regina’s first nationwide tour was in 2003-2004 when she accompanied the Strokes on their tour. In 2006, she started her solo tour of the United States and Europe and performed in front of sellout crowds in many clubs and theaters. In April, 2007, she sang at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Following her first two albums, released exclusively in the United States, her next two albums, “Soviet Kitsch” and “Begin to Hope”, were released worldwide. Her music has been used in many television commercials and popular episodic television shows in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Regina Spector will be on tour this summer appearing at the Lollapalooza Music Festival in Chicago, the Way out West Festival in Sweden, the Connect Music Festival in Scotland, among many other venues in the U.S and the U.K. .