About Vanya

VANYA (aka Michael John - "Johnny" - Popoff) was born and raised in Grand Forks, BC. He displayed a musical gift from early childhood and began to explore his creative talents as a toddler, improvising - "by ear" - original melodies on a toy keyboard, and "arranging" songs he'd heard or sung within his native Doukhobor culture (and elsewhere). He subsequently studied music extensively in his hometown, at first with New York-trained Faust Pinto and later with Tracey Garvin, eventually completing Royal Conservatory Grade 10 Piano. During this time, Vanya was a winner in several BMEA Scholarship Competitions in Grand Forks, and was a participant in the Kootenay Music Festivals in nearby Nelson, BC, for which he received notable recognition in both performance and composition. He was also the piano accompanist for the Grand Forks Choral Society on more than one occasion spanning two decades. In 1999, Vanya graduated with Honours from the Contemporary Music & Technology 2-year Diploma program at Selkirk College in Nelson, majoring in Keyboard Performance, and in 2005 earned a Bachelor of Music Degree majoring in Composition and Theory from the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

In between teaching and studies, Vanya played in various bands, and has also performed in, formed and directed several choirs throughout his extensive musical career. In 2001, Vanya ("Johnny") released his debut solo piano album, "Soul Sketches", which sold out two pressings. Several informal recordings of Vanya's music, as well as numerous choir CDs, followed in the ensuing decade. In addition to five world tours with various choral groups, Vanya fulfilled a lifelong dream by traveling to New Zealand, where he met a musical "Waldorf" family - the O'Connors - and formed the acoustic folk/pop band - LAVA. In 2011, they released an album, "Dream Love Dare", and toured NZ, North America and Europe - which included sold-out concerts at both the Grand Forks Centennial Auditorium and the Capitol Theatre in Nelson, as well as two performances at the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland! During this time, Vanya collaborated with Acacia O'Connor on her original musical, "A Chance To Sing", providing rich harmonies and keyboard arrangements to most of the songs. Shortly thereafter, Vanya began another project in New Zealand together with German-born Martin Jaenecke and British-born Philip Riley. What began, late in 2011, as an experimental musical journey ultimately resulted in the completed production of a CD entitled "BRIDGE - The Genesis Clock" (2014).

Returning to Canada in 2012, Vanya was hired as the music teacher at the Nelson Waldorf School, where he worked for two years, in addition to directing choirs and privately tutoring music students in the Kootenay-Boundary region of B.C. In 2013, Vanya recorded two new solo piano albums - "Vignettes" and "Live in Silverton" - featuring more of his original compositions and improvs; both were subsequently released at rare "live" performances.

In the summer of 2014, Vanya fulfilled yet another lifelong dream by moving to the land of his ancestors - Russia! For the next three years he lived in Moscow and worked full-time as a Kindergarten Teacher and Music Club leader at the private ESL pre-school, "OC - Our Children, Our School". Late in 2016, Vanya connected with several young Russian musicians, performing in numerous concerts around the capital. In addition to his work as a pianist and back-up vocalist in the Mostov Band, which included two special presentations of both Slavic and Jewish music entitled "Under the Same Sky" (a feature radio interview in Russian can be heard online!), Vanya also spent over half a year as co-arranger, pianist and vocalist on the project, "Sergey's Songs". This was a very timely and creative musical endeavour in which Vanya collaborated extensively with lead vocalist and songwriter, Alyona Minulina, and the very talented double bass player Darya Shorr. The trio set to original music the well-known poems of Sergei Yesenin (famous Russian poet of the early 20th Century). The release of their CD in June 2017, was quickly followed by several Youtube Videos under the title, "Viva Animo". That same summer, Vanya also released his own solo video of his original piano piece, "Introspection".

In the Fall of 2017, Vanya returned home to Canada for several weeks in order to spend time with family, to reconnect with many of his former music students, and to become legally married to his life partner from Slovenia, Matic (pronounced Mah-TEETS)! For the next two and a half years, Vanya was based in London, UK, together with his husband. He worked primarily as a Teaching Assistant at several different Special Needs and Secondary schools around Greater London, frequently helping out with the music departments and choirs - and offering private music instruction - in addition to his main duties of supporting students with learning difficulties. During this time, Vanya released two albums of his music online, which are available on most platforms, including apple music and spotify.

Vanya and Matic arrived back in Canada in the spring of 2020, and were initially based in the Kootenay-Boundary region of British Columbia, where Vanya was once again employed at the Nelson Waldorf School. They now live and work in Vancouver.

Stay tuned for future musical endeavours!