The musician and singer Lana Sokolov from Ashdod, appeared last week at the festival “Women who create Sunflower” which took place as part of International Women’s Day in Jaffa.
Soklov performed at the festival with her daughter Tina Sofia, whom she gave birth to a few months after the tragic murder of her husband in 1990 in Uzbekistan, and with other female singers, each of whom is a creator who has gone through a spiritual path full of upheavals.
Lana Sokolov sings her life story through songs accompanied by Michael Edelstein’s jazz guitar playing. Tina Sofia sings her new songs.
“My daughter Tina and I have been through a lot in life and I came to the conclusion that our voice reflects our health and spirituality. Fausto (her husband who was murdered) should have been an epidemiologist today, so it is very interesting that during the Corona period I wrote a piece called ‘Nights’ based on words he composed 33 years ago in which : ‘People wrapped in masks’. During the closures, we recorded the piece with a chamber quartet,” says Lana.
She met Fausto, when he arrived with a group of South American students studying medicine and engineering, at a New Year’s party at the music academy where she studied.
As they danced he told her that he was a lover of literature and music, and love was immediately sparked between them. “Until today I have not felt such feelings with anyone else.
Fausto was so beautiful, smart, intelligent, with a wide knowledge of literature and philosophy. In the month of March in 1989, we celebrated the ‘cheeriest and best’ wedding at my parents’ house. This is how friends and relatives who came even from St. Petersburg are remembered,” she recalls wistfully.
Ashdod-Carmiel line
Lana, a resident of Ashdod, shares the days of the week between Ashdod and Karmiel with her partner, the poet and creator – Sasha Strizhevski, so that both of them spend their relationship traveling between the south and the north and back.
She was born into a musical family: her grandfather Matvey Pivnich was a Yiddish theater actor who graduated from the Faculty of Jewish Theater in the last cycle in 1941.
When the war broke out, he was drafted to the front and was seriously injured, but thanks to his musical talent, after his recovery, he was not returned to the front, but was directed to the military band, and thus his life was saved.
He built an artistic career as a director and director of military bands in Tashkent. Grandmother Sophia Litvak was a pediatrician. Grandma died at a young age and left behind her two twin daughters: Vera (Lana’s mother) and her aunt Ella, who also grew up to be musicians: Lana’s mother was a conductor of children’s choirs and her aunt worked as a musical director in a children’s theater in Tashkent.
“my love, kill me”
She tells the story of the murder of her husband Fausto with tears in her eyes and tremendous excitement, as if it happened yesterday and not about an incident that happened about 30 years ago.
“I was five months pregnant. When I opened the door I saw Fausto drinking blood and I started crying. He told me: ‘My love, they killed me.’
The doctors did not treat him properly and after two operations he died. The police did not help capture his killers either. I had to survive and keep the fetus in my stomach for a few more months.” This fetus will later be home to Tanya-Sofia who appeared last week with her.
“Due to the dangerous condition of the fetus, I decided to have a caesarean section.” Tina Sofia, as mentioned, was born after the tragic murder of her husband.
“Me and my daughter Tina, who studied with a full scholarship at Berkeley College, have been through a lot in life and our voices reflect our health and spirituality.”
“Fausto was loved by everyone and loved everyone, regardless of race, language or skin color. In those days it was dangerous to walk around the streets of Tashkent in the evening.
When he returned home after medical school, he was ambushed by a group of criminals who thought he had money and their friends demanded that he take off his wristwatch and wedding ring.
He asked ‘why?’ And they started beating him, he fell on his head and suffered a fracture at the base of the skull. He barely made it home.
I was five months pregnant and when I opened the door and saw him drinking blood I started to cry. He told me: ‘My love, they killed me.’ When the ambulance arrived he was taken to the wrong department, the doctors did not treat him properly and after two operations he died.
I had to survive and keep the fetus in my stomach for a few more months. Due to the dangerous condition of the fetus, I decided to have a caesarean section. After the birth, a friend who studied with Fausto wrote to me: “Thank you for the courage thanks to which you were able to hold the fruit of your love.”
Home musically childhood
Her parents divorced when she was three years old, but her house was always full of musicians such as: the band “Yalla” and its soloist the famous singer and pianist Larisa Candalova, actors, directors and journalists.
“Thanks to the fact that our house was open and there were always cool people around, I didn’t feel lonely or that I was missing something. I studied piano at a music school that was close to home, but I left.
I learned a lot more from Larissa Kandlova, a friend of my mother’s who was a huge talent in terms of her voice, her musicality and the composers with whom she worked from the first class in the Soviet Union.
From her I learned that I can accompany myself on the piano with modern chords. For hours I sat in front of the piano at home, improvising and doing imitations in different languages. Once Larisa listened to the improvisations, looked at me and complimented me.”
The children were quiet
Lana will not forget how as a child she participated with the school choir in a regional competition of political songs.
“I put on some funny boots and when we finished singing and reciting a strong sentence in Spanish: ‘The united people will never be defeated’, we got off the stage and waited for the results of the judges of the competition.
When adults left the hall all the children started shouting and it upset me. Although I was ashamed of my boots I started playing the piano on stage, singing without a microphone and improvising in English, Spanish and French.
Suddenly there was complete silence. The children listened and probably liked my singing. There were quite a few other cases where I used my musical talent.”
I picked cotton for a living
In another case, music helped her survive difficult living conditions. When she studied at a music college in Uzbekistan, she and three of her friends were sent to pick cotton for two months without basic conditions such as: hot water, toilets, etc.
It was the middle of November when it is snowing and the weather is cold and wet. Lana: “We imagined that we were like the Musketeers, and when we walked in the cotton field we sang songs from the famous movies and we really felt warmer and nicer. Even then I realized that there is power and energy in singing together.”
She always used to sing and accompany herself on the piano, but she never thought that she had a great voice and that she could make a solo career – in opera or theater, so she learned to play with choirs.
When she was studying at the music college, she joined a movement improvisation group that was taught by the director from Tashkent Janik Fayzeev, who then began to try a new teaching method in which he took several students: musicians, actors and dancers with whom he worked on movement and breathing.
At the Academy of Music, she studied voice development with the opera singer Tamara Momikonian, and had the privilege of meeting jazz musicians who greatly influenced her: Igor Nedjedin – pianist, cellist, composer and painter, and Dima Grodsky – a genius bassist who is famous in Israel.
When Lashkent, a choir from the twin city of Seattle in the United States came to Anna, she sang classical music with her choir, and even had the privilege of performing with Igor Nedjadin’s jazz group and improvising with him.
From Tashkent to Ashdod
All the time she felt that she did not belong to the Soviet culture with the “Iron Curtain” and the lack of freedom of expression, and on the other hand she loved listening to the songs of great jazz singers such as: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dana Washington.
After completing her studies at the Music Academy in Tashkent, she decided to immigrate to Israel in 1993. When she immigrated to Israel with her two-year-old daughter Tina, she received support from her uncles and friends who lived in Ashdod, she sang and taught voice development in the “Birds of Song” singing groups in the south, performed at many events in hotels on the Dead Sea.
After working with children in special education, she realized that she could take care through music and develop her personal style – through HG.
Following a chance meeting at the opening ceremony of a music school in Israel, she formed a successful relationship with her wife, Raya Gilad, who studied with her and writes excellent songs in Hebrew and English, which resulted in an album of children’s songs called “Every Day Sweets”, whose theme song won her daughter Tina first place in the television competition. to be a star”.
A year later, Tina was chosen from among thousands of children to appear in the “Bravo” young talent competition where she won first place.
Israeli identity and the connection to Ashdod
Following the successes and wins, Tina received a full study scholarship at Berklee College in Boston, which is considered the leading school in the world in the field of jazz and contemporary music.
Her mother Lana moved with her and lived for three years in New York, where she learned a lot about jazz music mainly in jazz clubs and connected with the American jazz giants.
Lana: “I realized that I needed to bring them something authentically Israeli. Through studying at Alma College, I felt and understood more the beauty of ancient literature.
We studied in depth texts from the Song of Songs, the Zohar book and the Kabbalah. All this passed through me and grew inside me as an album in the style of jazz and world music called ‘Jewish Love Songs’.
The first song from the album was part of the prayer ‘Ayelet Chen’ by Rabbi Shalom Shabazi which was recorded for him solo on the double bass and a cool arrangement was made by the jazz musician Ray Parker.
The writer, poet and psychologist Shlomo Ariel who advised me in choosing songs and texts. I received financial support for the recording of the album from Jeff McAlis and the Reform Judaism movement “Communities Together” KBY . Malekis organized several performances for us in Reform synagogues and private homes of New York Jews.
After Tina graduated from Berkeley College, we decided to return to Israel. My mother lives in Israel, and Tina felt that she only had an Israeli identity.”
After they returned to Israel, Lana continued to organize cultural-social projects for the Russian speakers in Israel, who received support from the Ministry of Absorption.
Melodies and songs from Russian to Hebrew
“I believe in the inner strength of the creative woman, but she needs a supportive environment. It’s like a flower that needs sun, water and soil to grow.
At the same time, I made musical arrangements of my original songs that I collected in the ‘Experiences’ show. At first I worked with a jazz trio and later with a chamber quartet.”
She was privileged to work with Pavel Levin, a talented violinist and musical arranger, and recorded and performed with her ensemble at the composer’s house in the Tel Aviv port.
Her connection with her poet partner Sascha Strizhevsky helps her in the new works. “Sasha translated poetry from Russian into Hebrew. But the song ‘Ballad of the City’ written after the fires that broke out in Haifa, in which the words to the tune I wrote were written. I like that there is optimism in words like: “…the knight came and won, defeated the dragon” or ” …The rain of mercy has come, the rain of compassion and the rain of love.”
Lana wrote a work called “Spirit” which she translated into Russian. She also wrote original music for the song “Hakinasini under your wing” by Haim Nachman Bialik, who she says worked hard to create a new Israeli culture and identity.
“If we believe more in the power of the beautiful word, we will have more peace in our hearts and more magic and love in our lives,” says Lana, who these days intends to concentrate on the “Experiences” show where she performs in a jazz duet with guitarist Michael Edelstein.
“Through the songs I wrote and collected for 20 years, I want to bring people more light and hope and love for ourselves and our country.”
During the Corona period, Anna had time to study complementary medicine: reflexology, anatomy and Bach flowers and even developed a treatment method based on the effect of sound and movement on the human body.
“I am more certain that a healthy voice and movement help us not only find the inner balance, but also those people who are with us on the same frequencies. It is not at all related to our language or country of origin, because music is an international language,” she concludes.