Ljova and the Kontraband return to Manhattan with a performance on May 10th at DROM. Buy tickets in advance without service charge, and save $5 vs. paying at the door.
[More info] [Tickets] [Facebook Event Page]

"CUPCAKE", a short film starring Kinna McInroe and directed by Sean McPhillips, will debut at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival on April 25th.

The film features an original score by Ljova, performed by his group Ljova and the Kontraband with special guests Alon Yavnai on piano, and Marcus Rojas on tuba.

The film also features a special appearance by Ljova's wife, the vocalist Inna Barmash, who sings on the end-title song written especially for this project. You can hear it on MySpace and ReverbNation.

Thanks to all who made it to Tribeca for the screenings last week -- next "Cupcake" stop -- Newport Film Festival!

- In the era of hybrid everything, Ljova is practicing on a new instrument -- a 6-string hybrid made by Eric Aceto. It doesn't yet have a name -- hence, we're running a baby-naming contest. See more pictures, hear samples, and win free CDs for your help in the contest -- give it your best shot -- entries accepted until May 31.

- Ljova & the Vjola Contraband = Ljova and the Kontraband.
We've decided to shorten our name in the hope that now it will actually fit on a marquee. It's bound to be a little confusing as we try to rename our web presence and materials, so please hold tight. Same band, same ever-changing repertoire.

- We've posted a new video from our January 2008 show at Joe's Pub, and the Brooklyn Rider's have posted several more from their set - enjoy!

- Ljova & Inna went to Moscow in January to visit the Winnie "The Pooh" Sanders (pictured above), whose honeyed addiction sounds eerily like that of an alcoholic .. and also to celebrate Ljova's parents' 30th anniversary - congratulations to them! View our Moscow pictures.

- Ljova's music was featured on Delta Air Lines flights in January and February. Chose your airline wisely. (Delta flyers - Ljova's debut CD, Vjola: World on Four Strings, can be obtained here.)

Last but not least, a semi-anonymous snapshot of CURRENT PROJECTS:
-- mixing the debut recording of Ljova & the Kontraband
-- original score for a short animated film (with live orchestra!)
-- arrangements for a short-subject film by Michel Gondry
-- practicing!

Ljova & the Vjola Contraband are featured in this week's edition of New York Magazine, in an article by Justin Davidson profiling several developments in New York's indie-classical scene. Read The Next Next Wave online.

Thank you to all who came out to the LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND performance with the BROOKLYN RIDER quartet at Joe's Pub! We had a great time, and will post some videos shortly.

Our next show in Manhattan is on May 10th, at the DROM

Thank you again!
--Ljova

Youth Without Youth, writer/director Francis Ford Coppola's first film in 10 years, opens in select US cities on December 14th. Based on a novella by the Romanian author Mircea Eliade, the film is "a love story wrapped in a mystery. Set in Europe before WWII, a timid professor is changed by a cataclysmic event and explores the mysteries of life."

The film features original music by Osvaldo Golijov, with additional orchestrations by Ljova. Moreover, Ljova's composition "Middle Village" (originally available on Ljova's debut CD), was re-recorded especially for Youth Without Youth, featuring Ljova on viola, and Hungarian cymbalom virtuoso, Kálmán Balogh!

(The song "Middle Village", with new lyrics by Sarah Gancher, will appear on the upcoming CD by Ljova & the Vjola Contraband and featuring Ljova's wife, the vocalist Inna Barmash, slated for release in spring/summer 2008. While you wait, there is a video of a live performance, here.)

YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH links:
-- Main IMDb page with cast and crew info
-- Showtimes in your area
-- Trailers
-- the Soundtrack CD is available for sale on Amazon.com

Enjoy the film!

(FFC, Osvaldo Golijov, Anahid Nazarian, Ljova, and most of the music recording team.)

Inna & Ljova are back from honeymoon, and here are all the pictures.
(Wedding pictures are coming - soon.)

Honeymoon in: Stockholm Latvia Lithuania - Vilnius Lithuania - Kaunas Lithuania - Trakai Warsaw Budapest Croatia - Split Croatia - Korcula Croatia - Dubrovnik Venice

Inna and Ljova were married on August 12!

more pictures and videos are surely to come!
(This pic of Inna + Ljova & the Musicians, ©2007 by Jean Barmash)

The Inna and Ljova pre-wedding spectacular, at Joe's Pub.

Join LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND on our upcoming shows:

==> Watch Ljova and the Vjola Contraband videos on YouTube

(Ljova's portrait by ©Bill Wadman)

THE EDGE: Swinging Violas
by Alexander Gelfand
Jazziz Magazine (April 2007)

...This past January, the Russian-born, New York City-based violist Ljova and his Vjola Contraband drew a full house at Joe's Pub in Manhattan, forcing fans to stand three-deep at the room's swanky, dimly lit bar. Rarely have I seen so many young, attractive people pay to hear a band with no less than two violists not to mention an accordion player, an acoustic bassist, and a percussionist who bears a striking resemblance to Sideshow Bob. Yet there they were in astonishing numbers, knocking back $10 cocktails and whooping it up at the end of every tune.

Ljova, otherwise known as Lev Zhurbin, was born in Moscow in 1978 and emigrated to the States in 1990 with his parents, the composer Alexander Zhurbin and the writer Irena Ginzburg. He graduated from Juilliard and immediately took off in all directions. He has written music for folk, jazz, and classical ensembles; has arranged world-music material for marquee groups such as the Kronos Quartet and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble; has composed music for film; and, with his fellow composers Ronen Landa and Jonathan Zalben, co-founded Mediant Music, a commercial-music production company that has worked on projects for the likes of Kraft and Coca-Cola.

The music that Ljova performs with his Vjola Contraband is deeply indebted to European folk traditions, though you'd be hard pressed to pinpoint a precise origin. Looking a bit like Maxwell Smart talking into his shoe-phone, the bespectacled 28-year old spoke directly into his instrument's microphone-pickup between tunes. But when he mentioned his "strong bias toward uneven meters," he wasn't just talking. The off-kilter rhythms he favors recall the asymmetrical dance beats of central and southeastern Europe, where time signatures tend to look like hat sizes (7/8, 13/8, 15/16). They tug and pull at you in strange and mysterious ways, as do Ljova's melodies, which have the tuneful, emotive quality of good pop.

Occasionally, he makes direct reference to his source material. One as-yet-unnamed tune was inspired by music Ljova heard in Hungary while traveling with his girlfriend, Inna Barmash, lead singer for the Gypsy-klezmer-funk band Romashka....

Back home, he sought to capture the unique rhythms employed in the Hungarian town of Szek, where the dancers appear to have what he jokingly called "a really organized way of stumbling from side to side." Despite the goofy introduction, the tune itself turned out to be a haunting drone-like lament that made me instantly homesick for my wife and child. Pathetic? Yes. But impressive, too - at least on Ljova's part. Music rarely punches my emotional buttons that way. And it almost never makes me feel anything remotely resembling lonesomeness or longing.

The emotion most often summoned by a Ljova performance, however, is elation. His tunes frequently display the kind of driving punch-drunk intensity that typifies Raymond Scott's music -- especially the "Powerhouse" theme that accompanies all of the assembly-line scenes in those old Warner Bros. cartoons. And Ljova's colleagues take obvious pleasure locking into the tricky grooves and intricate parts evident in so much of the band's repertoire.

Ljova repays the favor with beneficence on the bandstand. Given his own considerable skills, the Vjola Contraband could be just a star vehicle for its leader. But Ljova promotes many compositions by fellow band members. He appears to be equally happy backing a bandmate or creating a scene-stealing solo. On those rare occasions when he does grab the spotlight, his performance displays the same rhythmic and melodic flair as his writing. More typically, however, he simply plays lead on a composition then gracefully steps aside. I especially liked the results on "Tango for Patty," a showpiece for accordionist Patrick Farrell, who occasionally threw in some jazzy dissonance alongside his Eastern-European melodic inflections.

Perhaps Ljova's humility came from years spent playing second fiddle to violinists. Or maybe he already knows something that many musicians - and most people in general - only learn later in life: the more you give, the more you receive.

Watch a video of the Enso String Quartet performing Ljova's Bagel on the Malecon at the Library of Congress!

Click here to view!

For those of you couldn't attend the recent LJOVA AND THE VJOLA CONTRABAND performance at Joe's Pub in New York, or for those who were turned away (it was completely sold out!), here are two videos, plus a wonderful review from the Newsday music critic Justin Davidson - enjoy!

HEAT ME UP - the most recent track by Ljova - is available as free download!

Grab the track here:
==>HEAT ME UP
...Enjoy!

REMIX IT!
"Heat Me Up" is looking for a new beat! If you'd like to give remixing a try, download all of the raw files at Ljova's page on CCMixter. You can publish your remixes on CCMixter as well.

Ljova's debut CD, VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS has just been featured in the December issue of STRINGS MAGAZINE! Ljova is honored to be featured in this wonderful publication, especially with his frequent co-conspirator Yo-Yo Ma on the cover.

==>Read the story here!

Ljova's debut release, VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS, has just been reviewed by Allan Kozinn in Ljova's hometown newspaper, the NEW YORK TIMES!

[Ljova] is an eclectic, with an ear for texture... strikingly original and soulful.

==>Read the entire review here!
==>Get a copy of Ljova's debut album, here

Ljova's debut release, VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS has just been profiled on NPR's nationally syndicated radio program WEEKEND AMERICA as the World Music Pick!

Any classical musician will tell you the viola is the Rodney Dangerfield of musical instruments. It never gets any respect because it always plays second fiddle to the violin. World Music critic Anastasia Tsioulcas says that's about to change. Her favorite album of the month is "Vjola, The World on Four Strings," by a Russian-born musician named Ljova.

==>Get a copy of Ljova's debut album, here!
==>Listen to a podcast of this story! (mp3)

Ljova has recently completed an original score to a wonderfully zany documentary film called "THE TEAM". Produced by the BBC, and directed by James Marsh and Basia Winograd, it follows the triumphs and failures of a group of homeless New Yorkers, who are recruited to compete at the Homeless Soccer World Cup in Graz, Austria. The soundtrack features "Plume" from Ljova's debut CD, as well as music written especially for the film.

==> Check out the trailer at MySpace!

==> For more of Ljova's film music, visit the demos page.

Ljova has recently collaborated with the Kronos Quartet and Matmos on the string arrangement to Matmos' new track "SOLO BUTTONS FOR JOE MEEK", from their new album "THE ROSE HAS TEETH IN THE MOUTH OF A BEAST".

Find out more and get your copy:
==> Visit Ljova's discography page!

Friends and users of the wonderful interactive music service last.fm - rejoice!

You can now preview Ljova's debut album, add his music to your playlists, enjoy Ljova's raio + more.

==> Visit Ljova on last.fm