"THE RUSSIAN JOAN BAEZ"

As a child, she often listened to Russian folk songs -- all the members of her family loved this music. But young Zhanna did not think of becoming a professional singer. She dreamed, rather, of becoming a surgeon because her hands were always as hard as steel -- as was her will. But, as fate would have it, Zhanna Bichevskaya's future was determined by her father's gift of a guitar on her 16th birthday.

After this, she began to take guitar classes at the musical school, and later graduated from the Variety and Circus School. Her teacher was Irma Yaunzem, the famous singer and collector of folk songs. Yaunzem's creative work had been the synthesis of folk culture's best elements back in the '30s. She taught young Zhanna many important elements of singing and arranging traditional Russian songs.

Then, as a third-year student, Zhanna attended a concert by Bulat Okudzhava at the Moscow House of Literary Men. There, she heard the famous bard singing "Matushka," which was destined to become her signature song. The arrangement she heard that night in no way resembled the usual variety style. He sang this ancient Russian song not with the accompaniment of a bayan or a balalaika, nor with a band of ancient instruments, but with a guitar! Was such a thing possible!?! It was a revelation, and Zhanna's future path was decided at this moment.

When she won the 5th All-Union Contest of Variety Artists in 1973, Zhanna's name became well-known in the world of music. She became famous not only in Russia, but abroad as well.<%0> <%-2>Bichevskaya's musical range is seemingly limitless; she sings ancient Russian ballads, city romances, Russian folk songs, the songs of modern Russian bards.... She sings in country-rock style, folk-rock style, and songs of political protest. Every song is colored with her own unique interpretation. She's a singer, an actress, a composer and arranger, a guitarist, a collector of folklore and an ardent traveller.

As time passed, Zhanna recorded one album after another. Now, she is the author of six albums. She was the winner of the Farmer-91 country music festival in St. Petersburg. It was soon after this that I first met her at a concert in the Moscow Olympic Village Concert Hall, where she performed a series of White Guard officer's songs (the famous "Lieutenant Golitsyn" among others), as well as a series of religious songs. The lyrics to the latter were composed by Father Roman, a celibate priest of the Pskovpechersky Monastery. Zhanna also included songs from the album "Butterfly," which she had recorded in collaboration with pianist Valentin Zuev and guitarist Gennady Ponomarev.<%0> I remember seeing the TV broadcast of Zhanna's concert at the famous Olympia Concert Hall in Paris in 1985. The French critics called her the "Russian Joan Baez." It is impossible to find a better characterization of Zhanna's singing talent and creative work.