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Was haben Queen, Led Zeppelin, Motörhead und Leonard Cohen gemeinsam?

Und was hat eine klassische Pianoausbildung mit Rock und Metal zu tun?

Die Antwort auf beide Fragen heißt – Vika.

Die 1978 in Kiew geborene Künstlerin begann schon im Kindergartenalter, sich für Musik zu interessieren, schloss eine klassische Pianistenausbildung ab und gewann auf diesem Gebiet zahlreiche Preise, bevor ihre Karriere eine ganz neue Richtung nahm.

Ihr YouTube-Experiment vkgoeswild, bei dem Vika ihrem eigentlichen Musikgeschmack nachgab und Rock- und Metal-Songs auf dem Piano interpretierte, schlug ein wie eine Bombe. Mit fast 750.000 Followern und über 200 Millionen Klicks auf YouTube und 110.000 Likes auf Facebook wurde Vika schnell zum Star der Sozialen Medien.

Live-Auftritte und Tourneen folgten, ebenso das erste eigene Album „Happiness is not the point“.

Vikas Arrangements bekannter Rock- und Metal-Hymnen haben einen individuellen Touch, ohne das Original zu verfälschen, ihre Eigenkompositionen reihen sich passgenau in den Sound ein. Sie zeigt, dass man auch mit einem Piano ordentlich was auf die Ohren geben kann.

Mittlerweile ist Vika eine international gefragte Künstlerin. Klar, dass wir bei Klavier Kreisel besonders stolz sind, sie am 7. Mai um 20 Uhr zu Konzerten in unserer Ausstellung begrüßen zu können.

Seid dabei, wenn Vika bei uns den Flügel rockt.

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ENGLISH:

Viktoriya Yermolyeva was born in Kiev in 1978. When her parents were told that Vika – at kindergarten age – had perfect pitch and a talent for music, there was no going back: “My parents took it seriously, and the natural consequence seemed to be continued studies at a special music school. That included competitions, exams, and concert performances requiring utmost commitment and all the other expectations that go along with that. Vika reacted to these tensions by listening to “the other music”, rock music in particular, and her choices became heavier and more aggressive as she continued to broaden her palette. Rock became the “soundtrack”, as she says, to her “inner reality.” Eventually, she quit her search and as an escape created the secret channel vkgoeswild, to let it all out, dance, sing, and improvise without publicly revealing her identify. Very soon, Vika started creating full piano arrangements, and then, with her first Metallica cover, her web presence began to go viral. Today, her YouTube Channel contains several hundred videos with rock and metal covers with over 20 million clicks and more than 380.000 subscribers.

In 2011 she performed her first live rock concert in Reykjavik, Iceland (VIGGIE & VIKA: Live in Iceland) and toured the US in the summer, collaborating with drummer Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls, Violent Femme, Nine Inch Nails). She has opened for artists such as Zach Wylde in Berlin and toured in Europe and Brasil. Her piano version of “Sweet Child of Mine” was featured in Bud Light’s Superbowl commercial in 2017.? In 2016, Vika released an album that was a mix of covers and original compositions. It was funded via the crowdfunding platform PledgeMusic and was entitled “Fan’s Edition”. ??

On November 2nd 2020 “Vkgoeswild – Happiness is not the point” was released, her first original compositions album that was written over several years. Vika started this project with her husband Anselm, it’s dedicated to his memory. For this album, Vika has worked with Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls, Violent Femmes, Nine Inch Nails, Viggie & Vika), Eric Mouquet ( Deep Forest , Grammy Award winning composer), Damien Sisson (Death Angel), and Alex Schwers (Slime, Ruhrpott Rodeo). The album is produced by french producer Nani, and mastered by the famous sound engineer Michel Geiss (collaborator of Jean-Michel Jarre). An astonishing team for a self-produced, alternative, dark and unclassifiable album.