Born in Moscow (Russia), played piano, danced ballet as a child. In high school played guitar and performed as a singer-songwriter and theater actress-composer. Studied classical vocal at the Dunaevsky Music School in Moscow. Saxophone was my latest instrument (followed by clarinet and flute). After immigrating to Israel in 1990 and brief study with Boris Gammer at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, moved to Europe and was accepted after the competition at the Cologne Conservatory, Germany. There I studied with and played with John Marshall, Keith Copeland, Steve Reid, Mal Waldron. My quartet with Boris Netsvetaev (piano), Phil Steen (bass) and Wolff Reichert (drums) was a winner at the Leipziger Jazz Newcomer Festival 2000. In 2001 I met Lee Konitz and became his student. Lee completely changed my way of apprehending music and my way of hearing it. He is a spiritual guide to me.
In 1999 I received a scholarship for Banff Centre fo the Arts Jazz Workshop in Canada and had a great opportunity to learn from Joe Lovano, Kenny Werner, Dave Holland, as well as to record at the Banff Studio with my own quartet.
In 2003 I was invited to University of Massachusetts Amherst for graduate studies, where I also worked as a teaching assistant. I was very fortunate to study jazz arranging with Jeff Holmes and contemporary composition with Salvatore Macchia, as well as woodwind sound production with Adam Kolker. I also met and played with Arturo O'Farrill, Dave Shapiro, Claire Arenius, Vishnu Wood, George Kaye, Paul Arslanian, to name a few.
Moving to NYC in 2008 was quite a change in my musical activities, here I finally met in person and played with some of former Lennie Tristano's and Sal Mosca's students, like Charles Sibirsky, Connie Crothers, Ted Brown, Bob Arthurs, Joe Solomon. I also had really great moments, which I am very grateful for, playing with Dan Tepfer, Michael Kanan, Sumi Tonooka, Kim Clarke, Evgeny Sivtsov, Putter Smith, Antonio Ciacca, Dan Loomis, Stefan Bauer, Ron Itzik, Putter Smith, Billy Mintz, Mark Ferber...
I was one of the three featured tenor saxophonists at the Brad Linde's Lester Young Birthday Tribute project (with Ted Brown and Chris Byars), Gerry Mulligan-Bill Holman project (with Ted Brown and Brad Linde). In 2012 I participated in the "Four Extraordinary Ladies of Jazz" workshop with Connie Crothers Alexa Fila and Jan Leder. In May 2012 I recorded my first USA album "Extemp" with Cameron Brown, Billy Mintz and Dave Miller, waiting to be released on 13th Note Records.