Yuri Rashkin Song List

Are you looking for a piano / singer to create a piano bar atmosphere at your special event?  

You're in luck!

Here is my song list...

All Of Me / Jazz standard

Almost Lover / A Fine Frenzy

Army / Ben Folds Five

Autumn Leaves / Jazz standard

Bridge Over Troubled Water / Simon & Garfunkel

California Dreaming / Mamas & Papas

Can't Help Falling in Love / Elvis Presley

Closing Time / Semisonic

Crazy / Patsy Cline

Daydream Believer

Desperado / The Eagles

Enjoy the Silence / Depeche Mode

Fly Me To The Moon / Jazz standard

Hallelujah / Leonard Cohen

Happy Together / The Turtles

Hotel California / Eagles

House Of The Rising Sun / The Animals

Hurt / Nine Inch Nails

I Will Follow You Into The Dark / Death Cab For Cutie

In My Place / Coldplay

Into The Great Wide Open / Tom Petty

Knocking On Heavens' Door / Eric Clapton

Lady In Red / Chris Deburgh

Let It Be / The Beatles

Love Song / The Cure

MMM MMM MMM MMM / Crash Test Dummies

Mac the Knife / Bobby Darrin

Mad World / Gary Jules

Make you Feel My Love / Bob Dylan / Adele

Moon River / Andy Williams

Moondance / Van Morrison

My Funny Valentine / Jazz standard

My Valentine / Jazz standard

My Way / Frank Sinatra

New York State of Mind / Billy Joel

Not Enough Time / INXS

No Woman No Cry / Bob Marley

One / U2

Perfect / Pink

Piano Man / Billy Joel

Rock Man / Elton John

Riders On The Storm / The Doors

Sad Lisa / Cat Stevens

Silent Lucidity / Queensryche

Somewhere Over The Rainbow / Judy Garland

Stairway to Heaven / Led Zeppelin

Summertime / Jazz standard

Suzanne / Leonard Cohen

Sweet Caroline / Neil Diamond

Sweet Dreams / Eurithmics

The Crying Game / Boy George

The Final Countdown / Europe

The Spy / The Doors

The Way / Fastball

The World I Know / Collective Soul

That's All / Genesis

'Til There Was You / Jazz standard

Under My Thumb / The Rolling Stones

Under The Bridge / Red Hot Chili Peppers

Washing Of The River / Peter Gabriel

Werewolves Of London / Warren Zevon

What A Wonderful World / Louis Armstrong

When I Was Your Man / Bruno Mars

Why Worry / Dire Straits

Wicked Game / Chris Isaak

Wild Wild World / Cat Stevens

Wind Of Change / Scorpions

Yesterday / The Beatles

You Don't Know Me / Ray Charles

Also, a number of originals.  

Yuri Rashkin and Silent Movies featured in Janesville Gazette story

Anna Marie Lux of Janesville Gazette wrote a very nice story about me and playing piano for silent movies.  Here are some excerpts:

Key performer: Piano player does the talking in "silent" films

Yuri Rashkin slid his fingers across the piano's keyboard in a rush of familiar songs.  "On Wisconsin."  "Mack the Knife."  "Misty."
On the screen, the little tramp outsmarted the villain to win the beautiful girl.
In the audience, Lucille Shimanek could hardly sit still.
"I just want to get up and dance," the 93-year-old said, her knees bobbing up and down.  "I used to watch these movies when I was a little kid.  They didn't have any taking, just a piano player."
Lucille grew up on the films of Charlie Chaplin, a creative genius who knew how to make people gigle with his waddling shuffle and twitching mustache.  Chaplin's early films were silent, except for the music that spoke volumes.
Today Rashkin is providing a whole new interpretation.
He is best known as a Janesville City Council member  But professionally, he plays and teaches piano.  Recently, he began doing something he has wanted to do for years.  He plays live piano to the showing of three classic Chaplin films:  "Easy Street," "The Immigrant" and "The Adventurer," all made in 1917.
Rashkin takes his show on the road, mostly to senior-living centers.  Recently, he performed at Janesville's Huntingon Place, where Lucille lives.
"I express my thoughts through my fingers," Rashkin explained.
He might slip into strains from "The Titanic" during scenes of Chaplin aboard an immigrant ship.  Or he might pound out a few chords of Pink Floyd's "Money," when the little tramp can't find his wallet.  Rashkin estimates that he plays a couple dozen familiar songs during the hour-long performance.  The rest is improvisation.
He knows the power at his fingertips.
"I feel like a conductor," the 36-year-old said.  "The movie can go in any direction I choose.  I can make it a happy moment or a serious moment."
He has been enjoying Chaplin films ever since he was a boy growing up in a Jewish family in Moscow.  A family friend played piano to the silent films, which were unlike anything the child had seen in the Soviet era.
"The movies were made with a different mindset," Rashkin said.  "They had no message and no ideological bent.  They were just people being goofy."
His parents wanted their son to have special skills, so they sent him to music school.  His first instrument was the violin.  The upright bass.
At 13, Rashkin and his family came to the United States as refugees.  The former Soviet Union had a policy of national reunification, which sometimes allowed family members to move to be with relatives.
"My parents wanted to protect me and my brother from having to serve in the Soviet Army and to give their children the best opportunities they could," Rashkin said.
His uncle arranged for a Jewish relief agency to send his parents an invitation from Israel.  His parents put together the detailed paperwork, got approvals and left.  They departed Moscow in 1988 and landed in Austria.  Then, they boarded a train that took them across the Alps to Italy.  Later, they flew to Salt Lake City, where Rashkin's uncle lived.
Today, in addition to his silent-film program, he plays a hundred melodies during an hour-long show called "Songs You Know and Love."  In addition, Rashkin is music director for contemporary worship at Luther Memorial Church, Delavan.
"During the interview, I told them that I was Jewish, but they said it didn't matter."  Rashkin says.
He leads a praise band called the Back Row and helps with other musical needs, especially during non-traditional services.  Rashkin also plays in The Ritual, a Janesville-based funk-rock-soul band.
He has an undergraduate degree in musical composition and just finished his master's degree in mass communication at UW-Whitewater.  He begins teaching at Madison Media Institute in the fall.
Rashkin looks forward to his next date with Chaplin.
"For a musician, it is an amazing opportunity to interact with the movies,"  Rashkin says.
"Silent film is history.  It is education.  It is fun.  When you have an audience laughing with you, it is great."

Introducing: Silent Movie Showcase with Charlie Chaplin

Last month, together with JATV and Pat Thom of UW Rock County, we put together a Charlie Chaplin silent comedy showcase /JATV fundraiser, featuring yours truly accompanying three Charlie Chaplin short comedies on piano, live.

As you know, the silent movies were never really silent, they merely lacked sound. Instead they featured music courtesy of a piano or an organ player and sometimes even a full orchestra. While some movies had specific music scores written just for them, more often they were accompanied by a musician who saw the movie may be once prior to playing music for it. Similarly to those old-time professionals, I reviewed the films and prepared a few specific musical cues. Otherwise, the music for this one hour presentation was improvised.

Everyone had a great time and though the audience was small, considering that this was the first time anything of this sort was done in Janesville in at least 90 years, and this being quite possibly the first experience of seeing a silent movie with live accompaniment for most members of the audience, it makes sense that this kind of an event has room to grow.

This was a combination of me doing something that I love - improvised accompaniment of silent movies - combined with the great art of Charlie Chaplin. And to make it even better, we were able to raise some money for JATV! We are very happy with the feedback so stay tuned to see if there is another silent movie showcase event in the future, perhaps featuring another Charlie Chaplin classic or some of the great comedies by Buster Keaton or some other silent movie greats.

In the meantime, I am taking this show on the road so if you want to schedule a performance - contact me!

Here is some of the feedback we got from audience members:

Mike Southers: I thought it was fun. I even told the gentleman that let us out, we (Kerry and I) would come again. It was a very nice blend of history, film, and music.....educational and entertaining. I also liked the timing. 90 to 120 minutes. Not too long or too short. Just right in my book.

Kerry Bergwall Southers: It really was a great time. Now that the boys are old enough to stay on their own, it was like a date night for Mike and I. Have not had one of those in over 13 years!

Teresa Nguyen: Loved it! What an entertainment "package"! I'd recommend you DO take this "on the road" Yuri. Awesome piano for the movies, too, Yuri. Of course, we all know how very talented you are, but as a musician, I know that it took some coordination and work on your part to fit the moods & actions of the film and to pull it off so smoothly, as you did! Bravo! :)

Tracie Linck: I would highly recommend that people attend if Yuri does another event like this. I am not sure which was better - the great movies which I have never seen before and loved them - or Yuri's music which I haven't heard before and now I have to get his CDs because I loved his music.

Here is the video of one of the movies that make up the Silent Movie Showcase: Charlie Chaplin's the Easy Street.

YouTube - Charlie Chaplin - Easy Street - Music by Yuri Rashkin

Check out my new music store

I got a music store set up at ReverbNation. It allows you to know where I'm playing, listen to my music and watch all the videos I've produced, as well as purchase each individual track from the "Piano Holidays" album. Take a look for yourself but I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with what ReverbNation is able to offer!

ReverbNation Yuri Rashkin music store

Yuri's Update: Java Joys, Bop Ritual, Chalk Walk, Discover Janesville and more!

Hi Everyone,

In December you will be able to find me playing piano atJava Joys on December 17 starting at 7 pm.

On December 27 at 5 pm, I will be playing piano at theRotary Gardens for the Holiday Light Show.

It's the Holiday season so I am playing at private parties but I still got a few more open dates left so if you're putting together a gathering and looking for some great light background music, let me know!

My Christmas piano CD called Piano Holidays is available once again at Java Joys, Hedberg Public Library and soon you'll be able to find it at many of your favorite local retailers! Featuring your favorites like you've never heard them before as well as original compositions,Piano Holidays will provide you with over an hour of relaxing piano music centered around the Holidays.

My funk/RnB band Bop Ritual where I play bass and keys, will be at Sneakers in Janesville on November 27and December 18. We start to groove at 8 pm.

Bop Ritual will be playing at Latham West in Rockford on December 11 starting at 9 pm. Yet this month you can catch us at the Red Zone in Milton on November 24starting at 8 pm.

Check out www.BopRitual.com for our future times and dates! Looking to book a great dance band for your bar or a special event? Let me know!

Watch for the new episodes of Discover Janesvillefeaturing Janesville charter schools, finalists of Rock County 5.0 business contest, Woman's Club and UW-Rock County rolling out shortly on YouTube and on JATV! You can see highlights from the interviews atGazetteExtra.com and if you do not have Charter cable, you can see JATV anytime live at www.jatv.org.

The first annual Janesville Mile Chalk Walk was a great success. We had 60 entries and over 80 kids participated in this fun effort to decorate Janesville downtown. Efforts are already under way spearheaded by the Janesville Convention and Visitors Bureau to organize next year's Chalk Walk which we intend to be a huge event involving adult artists as well children and featuring some 3-dimensional works of art. If you are interested in being involved in this endeavor, let us know!

If you are interested in becoming more involved in serving your community, as the president of the Janesville Noon Lions, I would like you to think about joining our great club. We meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at noon at the Elk's Lodge on North Washington and guests are always welcome! Hope to see you there. Check out the introductory video atwww.JanesvilleNoonLions.org to learn more about us.

If you are a writer and want to see your editorials on local issues published (or preserved), email them to me and I will publish them on my blog designed to highlight local writers. Called the Bigger Stage, you can find it atwww.BiggerStage.blogspot.com.

Mark your calendars for February 11 and 12, 2011 when the United Arts Alliance (UAA) ArtsFest will take place at the Janesville Performing Arts Center and the Hedberg Public Library. As the president of the UAA, I'm here to tell that it will be a great event featuring a unique Friday night event / concert at JPAC celebrating local arts! Watch for details to be out shortly. Want to learn more about UAA? Check out our original jingle and promoright here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IddfJxqasUM&feature=related

Also, this past summer, UAA produced a series of concerts highlighting local performers called Summer Acoustic Series. Get to know Janesville stars by going towww.DiscoverJanesville.com orwww.RockCountyArts.com! Watch for a press release promoting the series (first ever JATV production fully posted on-line!) to be out shortly.

On a more personal note, I look forward to completing myMS in Communications at UW-Whitewater next June!

If you would like to be added or removed from this list, please let me know.

Have a great Holiday season and stay in touch!

Thank you,

Yuri

Update!

Hi Everyone,

In June you can catch me at the following locations:

This week I will be playing on Friday (June 11) at Java Joys at 1009 N Washington in Janesville from 7 until 9 pm.

Next week I will be playing at the Janesville Armory on Saturday, June 19 from 6 until 9 pm.

Week after that I will be at the Janesville Armory on Friday, June 25 from 6 until 9 pm.

I am staying quite busy this summer playing for several weddings and private parties but I still have a few dates available. Looking for a great piano sound to make your occasion special? Call or email me!

You can purchase my CDs at my performances as well as at several stores in the area (Java Joys, Bookworld, Fairview Florist, Gathering Place and others).

Discover Janesville is humming along and we have just taped two new episodes which were sponsored by Alliant Energy (thanks!!):

Episode #17 centered on the Future Leaders and includes interviews with Matt Kealy, Dave Marling, Sam Liebert and Britten Grafft. This episode is already available at DiscoverJanesville.com and is being broadcast on JATV.

Episode #18 centered on continuing to discover Janesville's attractions and includes interviews with Christine Rebout talking about the Janesville Mile, Meredith Helgerson and Brad Cantrell talking about the Tallman House business plan, John McCally talking about the Janesville Jets and Mark Dwyer talking about the Rotary Gardens. The episode was taped at the Rotary Gardens. Interviews from this show will begin to be posted online shortly and the program will be seen in its entirety on JATV in a week or two.

Janesville Mile maps version 2.0 are about to get into print and we are currently looking for local businesses who want to help us cover the printing expenses for the map. Also, the second Janesville Mile meeting will take place at the Rotary Gardens this Thursday, June 10 at 2 pm. If you believe that Janesville Mile is a marketing concept that is beneficial to our downtown and to your business, we hope to see you at the Rotary Gardens!

If you are interested in becoming more involved in serving your community, as the incoming president of the Janesville Noon Lions, I would like you to think about joining our great club. We meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at noon (!!) at the Elk's Lodge on North Washington and guests are always welcome! Hope to see you there.

If you are an artist - visual or performing - and are interested in getting wider exposure for your talents, as the president of the United Arts Alliance, I am inviting you to check out the UAA -www.RockCountyArts.com - and consider joining our organization. At this time we are working on putting together a directory of local artists, and if you are interested in being included, please send me an email.

If you are a writer and want to see your editorials on local issues published, email them to me and I will publish them on my blog designed to highlight local writers. It is called the Bigger Stage and you can find it at www.BiggerStage.blogspot.com.

You may have noticed that my postings on various blogs and websites which I maintain has slowed down lately because I have found Facebook to be an amazingly effective way of communicating with people. Therefore if you are on Facebook - look me up! I have a personal page, a music page, Discover Janesville page and others.

Have a great June and stay in touch!

Thanks!

Yuri

Music for Haiti videos

Last February I worked with Teresa Nguyen, Jim Lyke, Dan Fredricks and Ed Gansen to put together a benefit concert to help the Haiti relief efforts titled "Music for Haiti." Here are the two videos of my performance at the concert. The first video is of my original composition "Here We Are." The second video is an original arrangement of a Beatles medley.