Short bio

David Serebryanik – born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, into a Russian-Jewish family of opera artists. He spent his childhood at the National Opera Theater in Tashkent. He took his first musical steps at home, improvising and exploring the piano and synthesizers. His father, Alexander Serebryanik, a conductor and pianist, opened for him the amazing world of Yiddish, Jewish and modern Israeli music. From 1994 David actively works as a young musician at the Israeli Culture Center in Tashkent, playing, composing and arranging music for concerts and Jewish festivities.

David Serebryanik Speaks: Insights from the Artist

You were born into a Russian-Jewish family of opera artists. Is there something other than music that you have a clear memory of from your childhood?

Sure. I remember my friends, the city of Tashkent which I love very much, school time, Opera Theatre, which is connected not only with music but with people, who worked there, first of all, my wonderful parents – Alexander Serebryanik, pianist and conductor, and my mother, Raisa Chepcherenko – a great opera singer (I am allowed to say such things as a son). Then [I remember] the amazing building of the opera house, its atmosphere to be like a bit of a tale. I have since childhood a big fascination with public transport. I have it, as it seems, from my grandmother Frida, she served at first as traffic police and later at the projecting of city public transport. I also remember the Israeli Culture Center in Tashkent, my third home (the second one was the opera house). There I was feeling as a teenager the freest, most accepted, Jewish – short – among my people. There was this taste of Israel, which I tasted and loved from the first time and since then I had a feeling of having been in Israel already long before I visited it. This time is unforgettable.

You’re playing, composing, and arranging music for a living. Which of these processes do you find most fulfilling? Or do you enjoy them equally?

To improvise with synthesizers and piano. For really composing I am usually too lazy – there is a lot of stuff to write down.

You’ve worked in many different countries and collaborated with many musicians from around the world. What does this contact with different cultures, styles, and points of view give you–artistically and personally?

There are five countries, with which I feel connected – Uzbekistan of course, but interesting, that when I say Uzbekistan, I mean in reality Tashkent. I know Germany for example thousand times better than the country where I was born. Well, Germany I just mentioned. Then of course Israel, which I love with my heart and feel free there as nowhere else. Then USA – my till now only one journey there was also a discovery of freedom, which I never felt in Europe.

And last but not least – Poland, a country where I feel homey. It is cozy, it has a lot of “old times” in it. It is artistically very interesting – with a lot of unusual concerts, exhibitions and theater performances. Or – for example, I just discovered a “Cat-Cafe”, a cafe in Stettin, where cats live and wait to be adopted. You can go there, drink a cafe, schmuse with cats and maybe take one of them home. Isn’t it amazing?

Artistically, Germany was for a long time a “trendsetter” for me because I studied classical piano, and that is just THE country to learn the rules of classical music (what I did not really with big effort) – I was always feeling attended to improvised music, jazz, Jewish music, klezmer. Classical music was always like a kind of torture for me.

Israel gave me artistically a lot. I think I do not need to explain why. And Poland, well, one of my big loves in Poland is Chopin and his music. When I say that classical music is a kind of torture, then Chopin is at least a sweet torture.

Can you tell us about some of your favorite or most memorable projects so far? What made them so?

The first really memorable and beloved project was in Tashkent. I discovered a KORG Music workstation, a synthesizer with the built-in possibility to record music, my father bought it for me when I was 15. With this machine (which is now enjoying its retirement staying at YUNG YiDDiSH, Tel Aviv) I arranged a full evening program for an in Uzbekistan and former Sowjet Union well-known artist, Vladimir Bagramov. He composed chansons in the style of so-called Russian “city-romance”, a lot of these songs were also dedicated to Jews in the Sowjet Union, telling their stories. One of these songs for example was named Aunt Tsilya.

My friendship and work with Mendy Cahan and Shane Baker gave me a lot! With Mendy, I discovered a lot of new (for me) Yiddish songs. I love to perform in his amazing YUNG YiDDiSH, and as I said – my old synthesizer is living there.

With Shane, I did two of his amazing shows – “Mitzi Manner”, a drag show with an old Yiddish actress as a figure, and “Monish” by Isaac Leib Peretz, which Shane performed and I improvised music on. A bit like in a black-white movie style, but with speaking.

You’re known for experimenting with Yiddish, Jewish, and modern Israeli music. How would you describe the intersection between your identity and your artistic journey? Has it changed somehow through the years?

It is a question for whole my life and not to answer in a short interview. But let’s try: I have a Jewish father and a Russian mother, who is sometimes, well, even more of a yiddishe mame than I could dream of. There already are these two perspectives, Russian and Jewish. Then: I was born in Uzbekistan but lived longer in Germany than in my country of birth (22 years). I speak four languages actively and have in general this amazing Jewish feeling to feel at home everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I learned and studied classical piano (as I said not with a big enthusiasm and effort), but what I really love is jazz and free improvisation. You see – there are a lot of intersection points needed. I think – to do what I do with love and a feeling of joy inside of me – this is the best intersection.

Can you tell us what are you working on now? What can we expect to hear next?

I hope, to work with Mendy and Shane again, there is also an interesting and amazing initiative by regisseur and playwright Paul Bargetto to make a revival of a Yiddish Theatre in Warsaw (Eldorado Teatr). I am not planning a lot at the moment – learning to live here and now day by day.