Leandra Ophelia Dax

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Leandra Ophelia Dax (real life : Olga Telnow , born as: Olga Wladimirowna Telnowa ; born December 19, 1981 in Minsk , Belarusian SSR ) is a pianist , keyboardist , singer and songwriter with Belarusian and German citizenship.

Life and beginnings in serious music

Olga Telnowa was born in Minsk, Belarus (then the USSR ) as the only child of an English lecturer and a physics engineer.

At the age of five she began to play the theme songs of her favorite series on the piano , at the age of six she was admitted to an elite music school, where she studied piano, classical composition , music theory and choir .

The general school she attended also specialized in promoting musical talents. Her perfect pitch was quickly discovered and her creativity encouraged: the music school allowed her to take part in composition competitions. When she finally won first place in one of the competitions at the age of nine, she got a scholarship at the Moscow Conservatory . However, her parents persuaded the jury to transfer the scholarship to an adequate academy in the city of Minsk because of the young age of their daughter .

Then Olga Telnowa was placed at the Minsk Conservatory, where she began a junior course in piano and composition. In 1996 the family fled to the German Ruhr area . The then successful young pianist tried to continue her junior studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen . Due to language barriers, the 14-year-old only managed to do this after two unsuccessful entrance exams. In the same year she took first place in Jugend composed with the classic piece Variations on a theme of its own and a year later with freedom of variation for a keyboard cattle .

At the age of fourteen, Olga Telnow discovered her love for contemporary rock and punk music. She started wearing her hair brightly and dressing funky. Eventually she left the University of the Arts to take electric guitar lessons. After three years of abstinence from the piano, she made up her mind to take her diploma in piano and composition at the same time as graduating from high school .

Career in popular music

At the age of seventeen, Telnow founded the riot-grrrl band Venusbabydoll , in which she processed influences such as Hole and Nirvana . During a two-week internship in a recording studio , the classical pianist developed an interest in recording technology and got to know her later long-term mentor and friend. Rya, then under contract with FAME Recordings , took on her by making the first demo recordings of Venusbabydoll and later including the songwriter in her live band as a keyboardist.

Tours with Mila Mar , Last Instance and appearances with Corvus Corax followed over the next three years . Meanwhile, Telnow wrote new pieces of her own, which she describes as "selected from extreme situations", founded the Leandra project and completed her Bachelor of Arts in social and educational psychology.

When Rya withdrew from the public, the pianist accepted an engagement as keyboard player for the synth-rock band Jesus on Extasy under the pseudonym Ophelia Dax . This stage name is made up of one of the characters in the tragedy Hamlet by W. Shakespeare and the character Jadzia Dax from the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

The band Jesus on Extasy was under contract with Drakkar Entertainment , toured Europe over the next few years and shared the festival stages with Nightwish , Tool , Skinny Puppy , And One , Unheilig , Last Instance and Marilyn Manson, among others .

In 2008 the artist finally got a contract with Drakkar Entertainment to bring out her first solo album Metamorphine under the name Leandra with the Sony BMG distributor . The album includes a duet with Sven Friedrich ( Zeraphine , Dreadful Shadows ). Her long-time friends of the band last instance invited her as a singer and pianist to her acoustic album The White Song and the accompanying The White Tour .

In 2010, Olga Telnow accepted an engagement with the band Diary of Dreams under the pseudonym DAX . Due to personal differences within the band, however, the collaboration only lasted a few months.

At the end of the same year she joined Apoptygma Berzerk , with whom she competes on the second part of Unheilig's “Great Freedom” tour . In 2011, the keyboard player also appeared at the same time as the cashier band and accompanied Frei.Wild's “XMas” tour on the piano. In 2012 Leandra Ophelia Dax joined Die Priester , Santiano and Roterfeld as keyboard player .

Debut album

Olga Telnowa describes the solo debut album Metamorphine of her project Leandra as her secret diary. The pieces are a reflection of extreme situations in her life. Stylistically, the music moves between Tori Amos , PJ Harvey and Massive Attack .

Projects and collaborations

  • 2003–2006: Keyboard player with Rya. Tour with Mila Mar and Last Instance.
  • 2007 – date: Keyboard player with Jesus on Extasy
  • 2008 – date: Keyboard player in Andy Brings' band (formerly: Sodom , The Traceelords )
  • February – July 2010: Keyboard player with Diary of Dreams, for the tour with Unheilig.
  • 2008: Duet with Sven Friedrich ( Zeraphine , Dreadful Shadows )
  • 2008: Piano and vocals on the album The White Song by the band Last Instance and on the subsequent The White Tour .
  • 2008: Club single Noisy Awareness , remixed by Chai Deveraux, guitarist of Jesus on Extasy.
  • 2009: Duet with Sid from The Pussybats on The Most Beautiful Tales End Sadly and Dance With the Devils , both on the album Famous Last Songs .
  • 2010: Live keyboard at Apoptygma Berzerk for the Unheilig Support Tour Große Freiheit II .
  • 2011: Background singer at Frei.Wild - only assholes around me
  • 2012: Live Keyboard at Santiano
  • 2013: Background singer with Frei.Wild on the album Still

Publications

  • 2003: RYA - Album Personal Cosmos (FAME Recordings)
  • 2005: RYA - Album Starship (FAME Recordings)
  • 2007: Jesus on Extasy - Album Holy Beauty ( Drakkar / Sony BMG )
  • 2008: Leandra - album Metamorphine (Drakkar / Sony BMG)
  • 2008: Leandra - Single Noisy Awareness (Drakkar / Sony BMG)
  • 2008: Jesus on Extasy - Album Beloved Enemy (Drakkar / Sony BMG)
  • 2008: DVD Weißgold from Last Instance (Drakkar / Sony BMG)
  • 2009: Video for the song Colored
  • 2010: Jesus on Extasy - Album No Gods (Drakkar / Sony BMG)
  • 2013: Leandra - Album Isomorphine (Drakkar / Sony BMG)

Web links