Artists:Elea Plotkin

Elea Plotkin is a singer-songwriter who is gradually insinuating her unique sounds onto a landscape that is dominated by young boy and girl groups and glossily produced hip-hop. It's a bad time to be promoting anything different from the corporate status quo, but that hasn't deterred Elea, who regards it as just one of the may hurdles to deal with in the music business.

Early on, Elea had to first overcome an injury years ago that left her incapable of playing her instrument--the piano, until she completed eight years of physical therapy, acupuncture, medications, and other medical treatments for her chronic tendonitis. She started out as a classically trained pianist, but was forced to stop playing because of the excruciating pain that the long hours of practice in the field demanded.

"The doctors told me that I had completely blown out my arms and hands, and that I would never be the same", she explains. "But I was absolutely determined to make music, somehow, no matter what. So I started singing and writing songs, playing the keyboard one finger at a time, building a melody with just two fingers, then slowly adding a little with the other hand--incrementally, because I had to stop and and rest every five minutes, and couldn't play more than fifteen minutes a a stretch. It went on for years like that, improvements and set-backs, good days, where I would work for a half hour or more, and bad days where I could hardly use my hands to pick up a glass or hold a book open...So I feel like the fact that I composed two CD's of music and songs, and had the willpower to keep working at it until I could perform again is a miracle. I think that the radio airplay and CD distribution now is just icing on the cake. The hardest part was healing; I just want to share my songs.".