Daily Inspiration: Meet Ilya Blazh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ilya Blazh.

Hi Ilya, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
My name is Ilya Blazh; I was born in a city located in southwest Russia called Rostov-on-Don, where I spent all of my childhood. I’ve started playing music when I was 5 years old. It all started with my parents bringing me to the Children Jazz School named after Kim Nazaretov. First couple of years I played piano there, then teachers have noticed that I was good with rhythms, so my mother introduced me to the drum teacher when I was 7 and fell in love with this instrument. Pretty quickly, I became really passionate about music, and I also really liked the people I was around: my teachers and peers. I practiced pretty hard to get into the school’s big band and many of the ensembles in the school. So, from the age of 10, I started traveling with the big band to other countries: Belarus, Ukraine, Argentina, Switzerland, and Israel, as well as winning many musical competitions in Russia. And from that moment on, there was only music in my head. I would spend 2 to 6 hours practicing and 2 to 4 hours playing with other people almost every day. 

I should note that all of that practicing became possible because of a unique approach to education that my parents took. Me and my siblings never went to kindergarten and were homeschooled throughout elementary, middle, and high school. Instead of spending time in school, our parents wanted us to focus on music and sports, so in addition to music, I did pentathlon, acrobatic rock’n’roll, and chess. In the end, I chose to focus on music, and my sister and brother chose sports. 

At the age of 16, I graduated from high school (two years earlier than my peers) and music school. I didn’t see myself continuing my musical career in Russia, and I was disappointed with the social and political life inside the country. I always dreamed of going to New York City, the world’s capital of jazz music, but my family didn’t have enough resources to send me there. So, I applied and got admitted with a scholarship to the Prince Claus Conservatory in Groningen, Netherlands. I chose to apply there because I many of the students from my music school would go to study either to Netherlands or to Germany, and Groningen had a program with a lot of visiting artists coming from New York. 

When I was studying in Netherlands, one of my closest friends got admitted to Berklee College of Music with full scholarship. So, he started insisting that I apply there as well but I didn’t believe in myself, I didn’t even think I’m gonna get admitted, let alone winning a scholarship… but my friend prevailed, and I applied. I did my audition in Paris, and two months later to my surprise, I got a letter in my email that I got admitted and won a $30k scholarship. Unfortunately, that was still not enough for my family to afford it and I told it to Berklee. They got back to me asking for some financial documents, and two weeks later said that they gonna raise my scholarship to full tuition. I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy and excited to go study at my dream school. It was probably one of the best things that happened to me. 

After I arrived to Berklee, I had to quickly learn new system of education with credits, choosing your own classes and schedule, and adapt to the new life. After living in Netherlands for a year, I thought I knew English, but I was wrong, it was pretty challenging to understand the way Americans spoke and used slang and other words I barely heard in Europe. Also, it felt like a totally different society with its own manners, mindsets, etc. All of that, plus missing my friends and family back home and in the Netherlands, was an additional stressor, but after the first year, I adapted and felt almost at home. 

In my second year, I started studying with the great masters of this music like Ralph Peterson Jr, Neal Smith, Francisco Mela, and Billy Kilson. I also got admitted to the Global Jazz Institute inside of Berklee, where I studied with Danilo Pérez, Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington, and others. I got into Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery Institute, Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra led by Greg Hopkins, Terence Blanchard Xtet, Tia Fuller Big Band, and many other great ensembles in the school. I was learning tons of extremely valuable information and getting a lot of experience every day. But there was a different side of the coin as well. By my second year, I used all of money that my family could provide me with from their savings, and so I was kind of on my own financially speaking from that moment on. So, on top of being extremely busy academically and taking part in so many ensembles, institutes, and extracurricular activities, I had to work on campus jobs 20 to 30 hours a week (the maximum allowed amount for international students) depending on the semester. And even that wasn’t enough for me to sustain myself, so I’ve had periods where I was basically homeless and I would sleep in Berklee hallways for weeks in a row, crash at my friend’s living rooms, and eat once or twice a day, mostly cheap fast food (or ask friends to swipe me in Berklee cafeteria) because I didn’t have neither time or money for anything else. 

It was hard both physically and mentally, so my cope mechanism became smoking weed and nicotine. It would numb my feelings and allow me to always have fun time through all of these experiences. And, of course, like with any drugs, it came with the cost. My physical health would become worse little by little every month, my social life was getting limited to the people I smoked with, my pocket would become even more empty, and my playing on the drums was suffering a lot from it as well. So, in my junior year, I stopped smoking nicotine cold turkey, and I started tempering weed off until I stopped smoking every day. It was an extremely hard but necessary process for me to do, and I am so glad I did. 

In my senior year, I got lucky to get a couple of additional scholarships from Berklee which allowed me to be able to pay all of my bills, and that was a huge bag off of my shoulders. After finishing my bachelor’s, I started working professionally with Jason Palmer, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Kevin Harris, Darren Barrett, Noah Preminger, Tony Malaby, and other jazz masters in Boston. Also, I started teaching a summer program at Berklee called Day Sessions. So, things turned out really good for me. 

In the recent months, I just got my master’s degree from Global Jazz Institute at Berklee this past June, helped my whole family migrate to United States escaping political prosecution back in Russia (this in itself is a whole another story), moved to Brooklyn together with my girlfriend, living a healthy lifestyle with good quality food, regular exercises, meditations, cold showers and many other things I do for health, and continue working as a performer and educator in both Boston and New York City. I still perform professionally with the people I mentioned above; I teach private students in both cities, working as a manager at Wally’s Jazz Club, and have my own concert series called “Apprentice’s Night,” where I invite famous jazz musicians to play with students of Berklee, New England Conservatory, and other young musicians on the Boston scene so they can learn from their elders in real-time experience on the bandstand. 

Currently, I’m finishing writing music for my first album as a leader, working on a local collaboration between dancers and musicians here in New York, and progressing with setting up an educational business with my partners. So, I’m really looking forward to these things. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In my story I’ve talked about the challenges I faced. I think the biggest one for me was not enough financial resources. Coming from a big family with 5 kids, Russian economic reality, and the difference in the wages between countries made it pretty challenging for me to sustain myself living in the US for the first few years. And in general, from when I was a kid, I remember always counting and saving money and unnecessarily comparing myself to others, which always felt like a bag on my shoulders. Also, I could feel this tension inside my family as well, which definitely played a role in how it shaped some of the characteristics in me, like meticulousness and coldness, which sometimes I wish I didn’t have, and I worked towards improving. But in the end of the day, no situation is perfect, and I’m grateful for what I have and thankful that even with these circumstances, my family was able to support my studies in Netherlands and my move to US. 

Another thing that I strive for in my life is balance. I feel like my mind is tilted more towards the logical, mathematical side and not so tuned to the feelings and intuition side. So, throughout my life I try to have both sides in my life. I listen to my intuition, try to tune into my feelings more, engage in spontaneous activity, and do various things like painting, meditating, and daydreaming. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a musician. I specialize on playing drums, composing, and teaching music. 

I’m known for being an active drummer in New England’s musical scene, as well as playing with jazz greats like Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Jason Palmer, and others. 

I’m most proud about my concert series “Apprentice’s Night”. I think it’s a beautiful project where young musicians can learn from their elders in a live experience on the bandstand. It’s something that was always prevalent in jazz culture but, for a multitude of reasons, is dying today. So, I want to continue this series now in Brooklyn and be a role model for others to do it in their cities as well. The model I do it is pretty simple: I found a place which pays a decent amount for the gig where we play every week or every other week. We have one or two older guest musicians every concert and the rest of the band is younger musicians that I change every concert as well. Most of concerts, we play original music from the guest artist that we rehearse by ourselves, but sometimes we do jazz standards as well. Financially, instead of splitting it between all the musicians in the band, I give it all to the older musician who is playing with us that week, and we students play for the experience of playing and learning from that elder. That way, older musicians have more motivation to come and participate in the series, and we students are happy to learn from them. 

I think what sets me apart is my background. Growing up in Russia, having this different childhood where I was homeschooled, living my home at the age of 16 to go study in Netherlands and then going through all the struggles in US just to be the best musician that I can be. All of that instils a sense of urgency when I perform, compose, or teach. It wasn’t easy for me, and I had to work very hard to get where I am, so I don’t take things for granted, and always try to be present and try my best to be as close to my full potential as I can be. 

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I think my story with drugs and the struggles I faced during my time at Berklee. 

Also, maybe some of the health things I do these days, like fasting, extreme diets, cold showers, running in cold, limiting blue light at night, grounding myself, and spending as much time outside under the sun as I can. 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilya.blazh/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilya.blazh/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ilyablazh

Image Credits
Ken Yin
Elizabeth Friar