SLOW TRAVEL BERLIN
Regina Spektor, Tempodrom, 8pm
Music runs in Regina Spektor’s blood. One only need look to her parents, a violinist and a music professor, to understand that writing and performing were something instilled in her core from the beginning.
The Russian-born, New York-based Spektor began playing piano as a child, a skill she later pursued in the form of studying composition at a music conservatory.
Today, her mastery of the instrument is apparent in the relaxed dexterity with which she plays. When combined with her mezzo-soprano voice, the effect is music that is intricately crafted and powerfully restrained.
Spektor demonstrates as much on her sixth studio album: “What We Saw from the Cheap Seats,” released in May, is a collection of old songs that have been reworked alongside a handful of new ones.
Interestingly enough, this musical revisiting of the past coincides with Spektor’s personal life trajectory: the current leg of her tour recently passed through Russia, marking her first return to the country since moving away in her childhood.Catch her in Berlin as she wraps up the final dates before heading back stateside. Natalye Childress
Temprodrom, Möckernstraße 10, 10963 Berlin; 030 74 73 70; S: Anhalter Bahnhof, U: Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Park; admission €42-47,80.