"WE BREATHE IN WHAT WE EXPLORE; WE BREATHE OUT WHAT WE EXPRESS IN OUR MUSIC CREATION," says Nataliya. "I have been writing music and playing piano for as long as I remember myself. I was probably one of a very few children in the world who did not have to be pushed to go ahead and practice. As soon as my mother, a pianist herself, would come back home from her job every day, I asked her, “Please, stop cooking, let’s go to make music”. She was the one to immerse me into the attractive world of music, singing songs for me and playing Beethoven and Chopin since I was a toddler. I fell in love with music very early. To the whole family’s surprise, I first started singing when I was just 8 months old. It was  a famous Russian New Year song. My mother was dreaming that I will be a pianist, my grandmother—that I will be a singer, and my father thought I will be a composer. He made a significant part in my childhood development as a composer. By a family tradition that he launched, I would write art songs for holidays and each of my mother's birthdays. He guided me in the creative process until my Conservatory years, where I studied under the tutelage of Professor Sergei Slonimsky. Since then, I've been commissioned to compose chamber and orchestral music, including two String Quartets, Barcarolle for Harp Quintet, Pantomimes for clarinet and piano, Fantasy for viola and piano, the symphonic poem Red Revolution in the Air and the orchestral ballet Adventures of Nils, among others.