My debut album “Vjola: World on Four Strings” turns 20 this summer!


(hit the “►” button above to listen while you read?)

Over the past season, some of the compositions from this album have been heard at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall Stage with the chamber orchestra The Knights and Eric Jacobsen, who also toured it in Europe); as choreographed by the legendary Twyla Tharp with American Ballet Theatre at Lincoln Center; and all over the East Coast with our group Trio Fadolín.   This June, the San Diego-based ensemble Art of Élan recorded “The Vjola Suite” for their 20th anniversary album, making the first complete recording of the suite; this fall, Aszure Barton‘s ballet “Busk” (with music from the album) will be at the Paris Opera.

Five years ago, for the 15th anniversary, I wrote a post about the founding of my own record label – see Kapustnik Records at 15 — today’s post will be about the debut album itself.

An album of self-released multi-track viola music would have likely never been heard by anyone – were it not for the pioneering support of several incredible people:

1. My girlfriend at the time, Inna, who convinced me that releasing an album – in an era of declining CD sales – was important.   “It’ll be your calling card”, she said. Twenty years later she is still my girlfriend – and for almost nineteen of these years, my dear wife.

2. The brilliant accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman, who appears as a guest on one of the tracks.

3. My cousin Johnny Gandelsman – who was among the first to listen to it, and to inquire if some of these pieces were notated.  At the time of release, I only had melodies written and improvised the rest – but due to Johnny’s enthusiasm for this music, I wrote out arrangements that became the foundational repertoire of some young groups, including his brilliant quartet Brooklyn Rider, and many others.

4. Steve Smith, Anastasia Tsioulcas, and Allan Kozinn – who responded to my cold-call emails, and were the first to review the album for their respective publications (Time Out, Billboard, and the New York Times).

5. David Schulman,  who also answered my email, and recorded a wonderful interview with me for his NPR series “Musicians in their own words”, which aired as part of “All Things Considered”, bringing the album further notoriety.

6. John Schaefer of WNYC’s NewSounds and Soundcheck, who featured the album on his playlists, and invited Ljova and the Kontraband to perform on Soundcheck the following year.

7. Serdar Ilhan of the club DROM, who designed the original CD cover and helped me make the first order of 1,000 CDs. I had no idea about how CD manufacturing works, and Serdar’s response to every question was “Don’t worry – I’ll help you”. He followed through – every time.

I have released 12 other albums in these 20 years but this one has always remained special. A compilation of hastily recorded viola demos for student films and rough-hewn sketches found an audience, and continues to win new friends. Much of what’s on the album was recorded in single takes.

I did not set out to make a multitrack viola album – at the time, when making demos for student filmmakers at NYU and Columbia, I had only one acoustic instrument in the house – my viola – and my other choices were mediocre synthesizers and free soundfonts I had downloaded from the web.    Instead of investing my time tweaking electronic sounds, I decided to multitrack myself. This multitrack viola world became a sound of its own.

Releasing this album has led to commissions from filmmakers and dance-makers. Almost every track on this album was licensed to one or another film or dance production. This album also put me on the map as a composer in the “classical” sphere — since releasing the album, I have been commissioned to write multiple pieces for a variety of ensembles, projects that have expanded my compositional vocabulary and musical directions, and sprung relationships that continue to grow.

Most of all, I’m grateful that this music communicates emotion, that it can make people cry, dance, transcend cultures and traditions.

Thank you for being a part of it!

-Ljova
August 2026

P.S. For anyone who is interested in sheet music for the “Vjola Suite”, you can find it here. And yes – I still have some limited stock of “Vjola” CDs available for sale, too!