About
Alla Lowery (Krymskaya) started her classical piano education at the age of 4 under her mother, Svetlana Krymskaya, who is remembered as a professional concert pianist and accompanist, a college professor, and a brilliant musicologist on the concert stage, on radio and TV in Russia for over forty years. Alla’s first performance on the local TV studio in Kazan, Russia, Tataria, took place in 1964, when she was 6 years old. At the ages of 10 and 12 Alla was on TV again as a performer, artist and composer. Later in her life Alla was featured on TV a number of times as an author of educational programs as well as a performer.
Alla Lowery earned her bachelor’s degree in classical piano from Kazan State Music College in 1977, and master’s degree in classical piano from Kazan State Conservatory (Academy) in 1983 (the same State musical institution the famous Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina graduated from).
After graduation she worked for about 15 years as a professor of classical piano performance and ensemble, accompaniment, and piano pedagogy at the State music colleges in Lithuania and Russia, concurrently working as an accompanist there as well. She played in chamber ensembles, accompanied solo instruments, vocalists and choirs for more than two decades. She worked 10 years at Yaroslavl Governor’s Academic Symphony Orchestra as a full-time pianist and chief manager of its chamber ensembles. In 1999 Alla Lowery (Krymskaya) became the second degree winner of Yaroslavl Region Prize named after L.Sobinov for the series of concert programs with the Ensemble of Violinists of the Symphony Orchestra.
In 1997 the orchestra purchased Ensoniq KT88, and that was Alla’s first close encounter with a synthesizer. Just around that time Alla had a part-time job as a music teacher at the School for Little Ones (a subdivision of the Provincial College of Yaroslavl), a very loved and famous in the city preschool institution for children aged 3-6. Her first experiments at composing and arranging on the synthesizer were designed for her work with the children at the school. Quirky, cartoonish and children’s music still has a special place in her heart.
In late 2000ths, after more than 30 years of successful career of a classical pianist in Russia and Lithuania, Alla Lowery started working extensively with MIDI and samples, and it eventually became her next specialty. Her life-long professional experience and practical knowledge of the sound of acoustic instruments helped her with mimicking them in MIDI. She has become proficient in working with high-end sample libraries in Cubase.
Since immigrating to the USA in 2005, Alla Lowery continues her work as a private piano teacher, a composer, and a MIDI engineer, taking interest in computers, and producing videos on the side. During last years she has created dozens of pieces in different styles, including a Suite for oboe and symphony orchestra, a number of pieces for piano duet and solo, a collection of pieces for ballet accompanists “The Elements of Ballet”, renditions of famous classical compositions, pieces for oboe, strings, etc. In 2013 Alla Lowery’s Siciliana for oboe and orchestra was performed an the Chamber Hall of Ryazan State Philharmonic, Russia. In 2014 Alla Lowery worked with Music Mind Games, making music and designing sounds for Rhythm Solitaire app. Alla collaborated with a number of American musicians and groups, such as TransAtlantic Duo, Capital Kapustnik, Vladimir Gamarnik and Yulia Petrachuk, among others, creating custom renditions and medleys of various pieces.
Alla Lowery, now a naturalized citizen of the USA, lives in North Potomac, Maryland, USA with her husband Charles and sons Eugene and Kirill.