Artist of the Week

Regina Spektor was born in Moscow on February 18, 1980 before the Soviet Union collapsed. Her mother taught music, while her father was a violist and photographer. Regina began learning to play piano at the age of 6, practicing her skill using a Petrof piano given by her grandfather to her mother. When the Soviet Union ruler Mikhail Gorbachev began his policy of perestroika in 1989, she and her parents immigrated to Bronx, New York City, and started a new life there. "We had to sell the piano because we weren't allowed to bring anything foreign-made out of Russia," she recalled. "It was considered Soviet property. I was so sad."