She began piano lessons at age five, composing at age seven, and was performing her own compositions on Russian television when she was still a child. Meet pianist and composer Elina Cherchesova. Her music and her elegant playing reflect the Russian folksongs of her childhood and the lyric opera of her adopted home, Italy. And when her recording and educational sheet music collection Album Divertente released, she began receiving international recognition as pianists all over the world began playing and loving her music.
Elina Cherchesova’s latest recordings are long form piano solos that highlight her gorgeous melodies and solid harmonic understanding. They can be found on YouTube and on streaming platforms. These eloquent tracks are a celebration of beauty and hope. In her expressive playing, these musical vignettes remind listeners that the power of song is eternal and that stories are sometimes best told without words. It is an honor to feature Elina Cherchesova and her music on No Dead Guys.
I understand that you started piano lessons at age five and began composing at age seven. What first drew you to the piano and who encouraged you to begin writing your own music?
In the house where I grew up there was an upright piano. To be honest, I still don't know who it had been bought for, but it was there, and that was enough for me. I was always drawn to it; it made me so curious.
My mother had never studied music, but she could pick out simple song melodies by ear, and she encouraged me a great deal. She taught me, by ear, to play two or three little tunes. When I was five, I was taken to a special music school, and that is where serious study began. My first teacher would have us learn a melody and then play it in any key. I believe that skill pushed me to explore the piano freely, and from there to begin composing.
I also remember listening to Bach's masterpieces on vinyl records, and how moved I was every single time. Even then I felt that the most beautiful thing I could do in life was to compose.
I read that you performed some of you own music on Russian television when you were a child. Did you know then that you were destined to become a professional musician?
I think I can call myself a lucky person: from a very young age I was completely absorbed by music, and I took my path for granted. So yes, I knew. Of course there were difficult moments along the way, as there are for everyone, but even then I knew my life could not go on without music. Without it, life would have been truly dull.
Given that you graduated with honors from Moscow's Gnessin College and later the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, what drew you to Italy to obtain a second degree from the Conservatory of Consenza in Italy?
I think I was afraid of standing still, of no longer learning new things. I strongly wanted to keep studying, to expand my repertoire and deepen my understanding.
I chose Italy because it had always fascinated me, as a country and as a culture. It is the country so many composers fell in love with, and to which they dedicated their music. So I moved to Cosenza, where I studied and earned my second degree in the class of Antonella Calvelli.
At what point in your career did you begin teaching at the Conservatory of Reggio Calabria and how challenging is it to balance teaching with composing and performing?
I have taught at the Conservatory of Reggio Calabria since 2024; before that, I taught at a music high school.
Balancing teaching, composing and performing feels quite natural to me, because they complete each other. Teaching demands that a professor stays in shape: to play even a short passage for a student, your hands must be ready, and performing is the best way to keep them ready. And whenever I compose something new, I immediately want to share it with people, perhaps in a concert.
Teaching matters deeply to me, because I believe it is our duty to pass on everything we have learned to the next generation.
As a Russian born, Italian dwelling musician, how does immersion in both cultures influence your compositions?
Both cultures share a deep love of melody. I grew up in a family where my grandmother sang Russian folk songs while doing the housework, and my mother sang too. Those melodies went straight into my heart and my memory.
Italy is the country of opera, and I love humming the most famous arias to my daughter. I also remember that when I was a child, my mother loved Italian pop songs by Adriano Celentano, Toto Cutugno, and Al Bano and Romina Power. So in a way, Italy was already part of my childhood long before I moved here.
From your prize-winning composition for violin and piano to orchestral works to solo piano, you write for many different instruments. What are some of the joys and challenges of composing for solo piano?
A small clarification first: my “Valse-Caprice” for violin and piano wasn't a prize-winner, but a commission. It was written as the compulsory piece for the Anna Rosa Taddei International Chamber Music Competition in Rome. It was given only to the duos who had passed the first round, and they had just a month and a half to learn it. Writing for other instruments has given me wonderful moments, like hearing my “Poème” premiered with the cellist Giovanni Sollima.
But the piano is my instrument, so when I compose for it, I go straight to the keyboard and play. Composing brings me only joy. The one thing I find difficult comes at the very end: when a piece is finished, the score needs many small engraving corrections before it goes to print. That takes time, and I'm impatient. I can't wait to see the piece published!
Each of your piano recordings feature your elegant, deeply expressive playing. What would you be willing to share about how you create such singing lines and intuitive rubato?
First of all, thank you. Here I must mention the school of Heinrich Neuhaus, who considered “singing” on the instrument the very foundation of the art of piano playing. I was lucky to learn it first-hand from my teacher at the Gnessin College, Irina Naumova, who was herself a pupil of Neuhaus. Later, at the Gnessin Academy, I continued my studies with Mikhail Arkadiev.
I believe every melody played on the piano must first be sung, in order to find its natural flow and phrasing, because every melody, especially a lyrical one, imitates the human voice. When I teach my students to play cantabile, I often ask them to play and sing at the same time. It helps enormously to keep the phrase from breaking, and to play more naturally.
Congratulations on your burgeoning career composing educational pieces for developing pianists. When did you begin writing teaching music and who or what encouraged you to do so?
I wrote the twenty pieces of my Album Divertente, published by Da Vinci Edition, during the nine months I was expecting my daughter. The idea came from the albums for young pianists that I love so much: Schumann's Album for the Young, Tchaikovsky's Children's Album, and the miniatures of Grieg.
I wanted pieces of different levels. Some are very simple and can be played by children at the very beginning, while others are more demanding and require an intermediate level. Each piece explores a different kind of writing and technique; one of them, “Promenade”, is written entirely on the black keys.
The pieces have been performed by students in Italy, Norway, the United States and Germany, and my scores are held in the Whittaker Library of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. What surprises me most is that some of them, like “Nocturne”, “Starlit Night” and “Valse Triste”, have also found listeners all over the world through streaming. Pieces written for young pianists have travelled much farther than I ever imagined.
One of the many things I love about your music is your gift for writing lyrical melodies. What composers have had the most influence on your compositions?
Thank you so much! Bach, without a doubt. I grew up listening to his music, and he has always been my model; in fact, the first pieces I wrote as a child were short two-part inventions. Then Chopin and Schumann, and also Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
As I listened to your educational pieces I was struck by how sophisticated your melodies and chord changes are, even though the notes remain accessible to developing players. How challenging is it to work within such a limited technical range?
I always compose at the instrument, so it matters to me that every passage feels comfortable under the hands. I also paid close attention to the fingering, suggesting the most natural one possible. I truly believe that how comfortable a piece is to play depends on whether the composer writes at the piano or away from it.
Tell me a bit about your most recent long form piano solos “Echoes of Light”, “Rain”, and “Fairy Tales”. What are the stories behind these lush, lyrical pieces?
“Echoes of Light” was born from the wish to write a clear, simple, almost minimalist melody. The title came afterwards: the piece itself brought me images of light, something sad and luminous at the same time.
“Rain” began as an improvisation. I was playing for my daughter, and at some point this melody appeared. She asked me what piece it was, and I answered that maybe it was called “Rain”. That's how “Rain” was born. It made me smile, because the same thing used to happen when I was a little girl: I would improvise at the piano, my mother would come in and ask, “What is that?”, and I would answer, “I don't know!” It simply didn't have a title yet.
“Fairy Tales” is a little different: it isn't a solo piece, but a fantasy on Russian folk songs for two pianos, dedicated to the Moscow piano duo Magdalena. They will soon perform it in concert in Moscow.
I understand that you will soon release a brand new album of piano music. What are you willing to share about the music that will be included in this recording, and when will it be released?
Rather than an album, my next release is a new single, “Souvenir d'automne”, coming out October 23. It's a melody that smells of autumn and faintly recalls the world of Chopin: sweet, nostalgic, sad, but hopeful.
Like most of my pieces, it was born almost by chance. Sometimes a melody appears in my head while I'm out for a walk or busy at home, and I catch myself humming something new. Then I drop everything and run to write it down before I forget it. I keep a music notebook full of eight-bar sketches, my “hidden treasures”. Other times a piece is born while I improvise at the piano. I sit down, start playing, and I never know what will come out in the end!
Other than your upcoming release, what current and future plans are you most excited about?
A friend of mine asked me to write a new piece for her and a wonderful euphonium player. They will record it in a studio in Norway, and they wanted something exclusive, never performed before. I'm really looking forward to writing it.
I also dream of writing a ballet. I already have some melodies sketched for orchestra, but for now it's just a project in my head. I hope that one day I'll be able to bring it to life together with a theatre and a dance company.
What advice do you offer your students on how to create careers for themselves in music?
What I will never stop telling young musicians is to always follow their passion. Even in difficult moments, focus on your love for music, overcome the obstacles, and never give up. Every technical passage can be mastered with resilience, patience and calm. You have to think: “Sooner or later, it will come.” Be patient, and try, and try again.
Elina Cherchesova is a composer and pianist born in Vladikavkaz, Russia. She began playing the piano at five and composing at seven. In Moscow she graduated with honours from the Gnessin College, in the class of Irina Naumova, a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus, and from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, in the class of Mikhail Arkadiev. In Italy she earned a second degree in piano with honours at the Conservatory of Cosenza, and she now teaches piano at the Conservatory of Reggio Calabria.
As a soloist she has performed Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2 with orchestra. Her music has been performed in Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, Scotland and the United States, and is published by Da Vinci Publishing, distributed by Hal Leonard. Her Poème was premiered with cellist Giovanni Sollima, and her Valse-Caprice was commissioned as the compulsory piece of the Anna Rosa Taddei International Chamber Music Competition in Rome. Today she writes mainly for solo piano: pieces such as Nocturne and Starlit Night, born in her educational collection Album Divertente, now reach listeners around the world through streaming.