Ortansia: news

Ortansia's song 'Spanish Guitar' is to be featured in volume 8 of MA Enterprise Japan's 'Next Generation Creators' compilation album series out in Japan on April 30.

Ortansia's 'Christmas Tales' concerts on the 22nd and 23rd of December at the Tokyo Art Center were a great sucess. Ortansia was accompanied on the piano by Odajima Tsuneyoshi, winner of numerous prestigious international piano competitions, and Yuriy Kozhevatov, a graduate of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St Petersburg, and a pianist for the the Marinskii Ballet for many years. Dr Yury Klochkov read poetry by Pushikin.

Ortansia's song 'Boat of Love' is featured in volume 2 of a two-set love compilation brought out by major Japanese music and film contents company Avex Group's exciting and innovative MA Enterprise Japan's label on December 24, 2009. The compilation albums are titled 'Love is All Music'. A special homepage for the love compilation albums can be found at: http://love-is-all-music.syncl.jp/. For Avex Group's homepage, click: http://avexnet.jp/. For MA Enterprise Japan president Akimaru Masataka's blog, click: http://ma-music.syncl.jp/.

Many of the photographs of Ortansia taken in St Petersburg are by famous Russian photographer Alexander Krupnov, member of the International Federation of Journalists and Journalist Union of St Petersburg. Krupnov is particularly known for his photographs on the theme of classical music and social reality. Representative of his work are his 1989 photograph of a pianist seated at a grand piano with a cleaning lady in the background, and his 1993 photograph of a plastic shop-window doll being carried by authoritarian figures.

Ortansia's first album, 'Silent Heart' (2005), is popular on American music site Payplay.fm. It was ranked 51st out of 889 albums in the delicate/love songs music category: http://payplay.fm/genre/delicate/popular/2.

Details and photos of Ortansia's December 27th Tokyo concert, 'Winter Tales', can be found in Chinese on the Chinese CCTV site at the following: http://blog.cctv.com/html/22/920022-201844.html.

Ortansia's concert 'Winter Tales' at the Art Centre of Tokyo, Kita-Senju, Tokyo, 27th December, was a great success. Singing to a full-capacity audience, Ortansia was accompanied on the piano by the Russian condctor Alim Shakhmametyev of the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory. Poetry readings by Dr Yury Klochkov, Professor Miao Xiao Fang and Alim Shakhametyev added a nice flavour to the beautiful atmosphere of the concert.

Ortansia's song 'What Is the Colour of Her Eyes?' was a Semifinalist in the the Jazz category of the prestigious UK Songwriting Contest 2008. This achievement adds to her Semifinalist awards for the songs 'Think of Me' and 'Christmas is Near' in the UK Songwriting Contest of 2005 and 2006, and her Finalist position for her song 'Cafe Window' in the Jazz category of the VH1 Song of the Year competition, Houston, Texas in 2005.

An article about Ortansia in Chinese can be found on the 'Blog Sina' site at the following: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_538cc6cf0100a4va.html. Professor Miao Xiaofang's interview with Ortansia can be found in two parts at the following: Part 1 http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_538cc6cf0100a5xj.html; Part 2 http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_538cc6cf0100a675.html. Ortansia wishes to thank all for the wonderful comments to her from the readers of the site. Greetings to you!

Three of Ortansia's songs are featured on each of the four 'Pro Series Compilation' compilation albums brought out by RoadShow Records of Muskogee, Oklahoma. See, for example: http://cdbaby.com/cd/roadshow5; http://cdbaby.com/cd/roadshow6.

The most recent statistics compiled by Apple iTunes (including iTunes- Europe, Canada, Australia, UK, and Japan), MSN Music, MP3Tunes, Liquid Digital Media, Napster, and Rhapsody show that the most popular song from the 'Silent Heart' CD downloaded from these music sites is still 'Spanish Guitar'. This is followed by 'Love Song'.

Ortansia's recent concert 'Twelve Stories of Love' at the Tokyo Art Center is mentioned in an entry for the 13th January in the Polish Catholic Information Service's newsletter. This appears under the heading (in Polish), 'Preaching the Good News Through Jazz Music': http:/www.ewangelizacja.pl/japonia-gloszenie-dobrej-nowiny-przez-muzyke-jazzowa/. A similar account appears on Radio Niepokalano 102.7 FM's website: www.radioniepokalanow.pl/index.php?t=wiadomosci&kid=1&id=1771. For Polish fans, individual songs from the 'Silent Heart' album (as well as the whole album) can be downloaded from the Polish music site Melo: http://melo.pl/album/aid/27128.

Ortansia's concert, 'Twelve Stories of Love', at the Art Center, Tokyo on December 27 was a great success. She sang to a packed audience, accompanied on the piano by Alim Shakhmametyev of the St Petersburg State Rimsky-korsakov Conservatory. Alim Shakhmametyev conducted Luciano Pavarotti in his final concert in Russia. Choreography was by the ballet dancer Dima Ustuzhanin of St. Petersburg. Alim Shakhmametyev, in addition to accompanying Ortansia on the piano, read poetry in Russan by Pushkin and played Russian songs on the piano, including 'Moscow Night' and a Nocturne by Tchaikovsky. Ortansia sang twelve songs from her 'Silent Heart' and 'A Secret' albums, and also a new song, 'Two Flowers in My Garden'. A great time was had by all. One fan at the concert commented: 'Last night's performance was very special. Thank you'. Another member of the audience commented: 'I really enjoyed your wonderful songs. I like the Twelve Stories of Love. Thanks a million.' For photos of the concert, please click on the PHOTOS section of this website.

Ortansia now has her own myspace site. Please visit from time to time and see what's new! See: http://www.myspace.com/ortansia.

An autographed copy of Ortansia's 'Silent Heart' album, together with a Japanese fan from Kyoto, were donated by Ortansia and were for offer at the Second Breast Cancer Awareness Month Online Auction (October 2007) to support the Canadian Breast Cancer Network charity. The items raised 13 Canadian dollars for the charity, after the price was raised 5 times. The charity's website can be found at: http://www.cbcn.ca.

Ortansia's second album, 'A Secret', is now out! Recorded in St Petersburg, Russia, the album is full of beautiful love songs, and is a masterpiece made in collaboration with some of St Petersburg's finest instrumentalists. All the songs from the album (as well as all the songs from her 'Silent Heart' album) can be listened to on the MUSIC page of this site. To purchase, please go to the BUY page.

An autographed copy of Ortansia's 'Silent Heart' album was a prize on the Planetmike website (in conjunction with the Christmas Music 7/24 station). Contesters had to guess the correct number of marbles in a jar: http://www.planetmike.com/journal/2007/07/28/how-many-marbles-1-to-1000000

Ortansia's 'Spanish Guitar' track from her 'Silent Heart' album is currently on 'Guitar Universe', a music website for guitar enthusiasts: http://www.guitarracr.com/Spanish_guitar/pp_201823975.htm#

Ortansia is a Partner on the Bulgarian satellite TV channel,' Spirit Media TV': http://spirit-media.tv/index/page.php?5

Ortansia is a featured artist for August on a U.S. tv channel. Video clips of two songs, 'Cafe Window' and 'Love's Kaleidoscope', are at present being shown on the Proartist segment of North Coast Stars TV, aired twice daily, five days a week. NCSTV is a community TV station airing out of Cleveland, Ohio. Sections of the video clips were also on the Proartist website in July. See: http://www.ncstars.tv/PROARTIST060615.html An interview with Ortansia can be found by clicking the following: http://www.ncstars.tv/Ortansia.htm

The song 'Think of Me' was a semi-finalist in the 2006 UK Songwriting Contest. This follows the recent successes of the songs 'Christmas is Near' (a semi-finalist in the 2005 UK Songwriting Contest) and 'Cafe Window' (a finalist in the VH1 Song of the Year Competition, Houston, Texas in 2005).

The 'Silent Heart' CD is at present signed up for digital distribution at the following music sites: Apple iTunes; Emusic; MSN Music; MusicMatch; MP3tunes; MusicNet; LoudEye; MusicNow; BuyMusic; Bitmunk; Pass Along; Chondo; Ruckus; American Idol Underground; DigitalKiosk; TastyAudio (1776); Liquid Digital Media; NextRadio; Tradebit; Rhapsody; DigiPie; PayPlay; AudioLunchbox; WrapFactory; iSound; HearMusic; GroupieTunes; Interia; Puretracks; Iriver Media Online; MP3-Extension; MusicIsHere; MOD Systems; QTRnote; Choice Records; Improdicon; Napster; Destra; Sony Connect; Arvato; Verizon Wireless; Daiki (Music Online Corp); YooPeeDoo; GreatIndieMusic; PlayIndies; MPGreek; Sonific; Intent Media Works; Flip; Emusic; USEN and PeerImpact. All tracks of the CD can be downloaded from the above music sites.

The following email was received from the American Idol Underground Team of the US music site American Idol Underground: 'Congratulations Ortansia! Listeners on American Idol Underground have rated your song among the top 50 tracks in the Pop genre during the previous week'. See you all on the site.

'Dance with Me' was recently played to 1,800 dancers at a weekend party in the Latin room at a modern jive event in Camber Sands, UK, by leading UK DJ Rob McKim (DJ Rob the Jive Jock). Commenting on the song, he observed: 'Really nice tune for dancing'.

Ortansia's songs are now on the playlist of the NC Stars 'Jukebox TV' showcase, part of Prostar, which runs the North Coast Stars Video Magazine and which airs in Greater Cleveland, Ohio twice daily, 5 days a week (community access television programming). 'Jukebox TV' is a radio style TV show. See further: http://www.ncstars.tv/proartist.htm and http://www.ncstars.tv The site is also running an interview with me. See: http://www.ncstars.tv/Ortansia.htm