31 October 2005 Press Release (Updated): 'Silent Heart' CD From Song of the Year Songwriting Competition Finalist Ortansia Now Available
Adult contemporary artist Ortansia's first CD, 'Silent Heart', is now available through U.S. digital retailer CDBaby, and individual songs are downloadable from 61 music sites, including iTunes Music Store, MSN Music and Sony Connect. The twelve songs on the CD take you to her world of love. Are you in love? Have you been hurt by love? Then let Ortansia intoxicate you with her sweet, velvet voice and her dark, mysterious eyes. Be touched by such smooth songs as 'Love Song', 'From Your Deep Dark Eyes', 'Silent Heart', 'Summer in Vienna' and 'Think of Me', and inspired by the profound and ever-relevant 'Christmas is Near'. Dance to her 'Dance with Me'. 'Through the songs on this album', says Ortansia, 'I want to move the hearts of many people'. She has been overwhelmed by the response from so many people from different parts of the world, and is so thankful to them. 'I want to reach even more people through my music'.
'Silent Heart' was recorded at a studio in St. Petersburg, Russia utilized by many famous singers (including the popular German group Modern Talking); it was produced by talented conductor Alim Shakhmametyev of the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory (who conducted Luciano Pavarotti in his final concert in Russia); and sound engineered by the internationally acclaimed Anton Schwartz, now working at Moscow's top recording studio. It features the best instrumentalist in St. Petersburg.
Ortansia, the daughter of a medical doctor, spent her formative years in Japan before going to England, where she earned a doctorate from the University of Oxford in philosophy and intellectual history. She is the author of a standard work on offence and retribution in early society, and has contributed to an encyclopedia on history. As a university lecturer, she was so popular that students queued to take her lesson. Music has always been her first love and, encouraged by Professor Boris Tishchenko, Professor of Composition at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, she has embarked on her new chosen career as composer and singer.
Three of the songs on the CD have already had success in prestigious international songwriting competitions: the soft jazz number 'Cafe Window' was a finalist in the VH1 Song of the Year Songwriting Competition in Houston, Texas; 'Christmas is Near' was a semi-finalist in the 2005 UK Songwriting Contest; and 'Think of Me' was again a semi-finalist in the 2006 UK Songwriting Contest. She was praised by the panel of judges in the VH1 Song of the Year contest for her 'exceptionable' songwriting skill.
Reviewing the 'Silent Heart' CD, DJ Stephan Karkowsky of the 'Radio 1 Late Night Lounge' radio programme, Berlin, observed: 'I do like your CD. I like your voice. . . and the quality of your compositions is outstanding. These are great songs. . . The arrangements remind me of early Scott Walker songs: tragic, melancholic and subtle'.
Ortansia's second album 'A Secret', was recently released, It was aAgain produced by Alim Shakhmametyev of the St Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, and again recorded in St Petersburg. The sound engineer on the album was Anton Tanonov of the Rimsky-korsakov Conservatory (and who recently arranged the Russian national anthem). The album continues Ortansia's theme: the various shapes of love. It features such songs as 'Boat of Love', 'A Secret', 'What Is the Colour of Her Eyes?' and the charming 'Anastasia'.