Gothic Theatre
Elea Plotkin
Elea (pronounced Eel-Lee-Uh) is a paradox; a polite and somewhat reserved dark-haired beauty who still carries the manner of her provincial upbringing but becomes an uninhibited, soul-baring siren when she’s behind a microphone. Sensual yet innocent, she commands attention with candidly straightforward lyrics that are unhampered by abstract jargon. Her music is described as unique in it’s mixture of rock, pop, blues and country.
Elea grew up in the town of Van Zandt, Washington. How did a girl from the rural Cascade Mountains of Washington state become a woman who has learned to sing with such conviction? “I sang my first solo when I was six years old at the Acme Elementary School Christmas Pageant—and from then on I was the student they always asked to sing the solos.” Elea explains, “Music was and still is, the very fabric of my life. As a kid, I studied piano very seriously. There was always the next recital, the next competition to prepare for. In high school I won First Place in the Washington State Young Composers Contest, and I fantasized about being a concert pianist. After I graduated, I went on to the University of Washington and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Music.”
In 1990 life threw Elea a devastating curve. She injured her hands and arms and she could no longer play the piano. “My fingers were too weak to push down a key; I couldn’t curl my fingers, I had no feeling in parts of my hands,” she explains. “Totally frustrated and demoralized, I gave up playing classical music and began years and years of medical treatments and physical therapy. I thought I might never be able to play the piano again, and I felt as though I were slowly dying.”
To keep her spirit alive, Elea began writing and singing songs. “These songs filled a profound need in me at a very painful time in my life,” she confides. Gradually, Elea salvaged her musicianship one finger and one song at a time. “I happened to meet record producer Doug Haywood at a local recording studio in Denver, and I made my first CD “Behind the Eyes.” Several years later I recorded my second CD, “Little Rockets.”
It was during this time that Elea slowly began to perform again, as a singer-songwriter, and developed a strong and steady following, through radio and inspired live shows. Despite her classical training Elea writes adult contemporary and rock’n’roll songs that draw from the styles of Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, and Aretha Franklin. Many of her songs touch on the universal themes of relationships, overcoming adversity and finding happiness.
