Guitar, Vocals

Yelena Valerievna was born in Latvia, Eastern Europe. Born into a musical family, her love for music began when she started piano lessons at age 6. Yelena sang in many choral groups throughout her schooling years and developed a love for vocal harmony. She grew up internationally, traveling and living in many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America. She is fluent in 3 languages. While living in England, Yelena picked up the guitar and began learning songs that her grandmother used to play. She later began exploring many genres of music and composing her own songs, some of which are performed by Malinka. Yelena is also a percussionist and dancer. She plays bendir, djembe, doumbek, and other hand drums and has played with various groups over the years. As a dancer, Yelena spent most of her life studying and performing Jazz, Latin, Ballroom, Swing, Modern, Hip Hop, and Middle Eastern dance, as well as African drum and dance with various ensembles in California and New York. Aside from her endeavors in music and dance, Yelena is passionate about education and has worked as a Waldorf teacher at Waldorf schools worldwide since 2009. Yelena loves collaborating with others and believes that together, we create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.