Meena Ysanne | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ysanne Spevack 24 June 1972 |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Meena Ysanne, Mee |
| Education | The Latymer School Royal College of Music |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, conductor, arranger, violinist, author |
| Years active | 1988-present |
| Known for | Music, writing, sensory experiences |
| Website | ilovestrings.com tastecolors.com |
Ysanne Spevack (born 24 June 1972) is a British-American and composer, conductor and arranger who plays violin, viola and cello, and assorted multi-instruments including mbira, keyboards and guitar.[1] best known for her work recording and touring with the Smashing Pumpkins,[2] David J,[3] Michael Stipe, Tiesto,[4] Elton John, Christina Perri,[5] Hawkwind, Psychic TV, and Asian Dub Foundation.[6] Since 2016, she has been known as Meena Ysanne.[7]
She has a dual career as a food writer. Her thirteen cookbooks have been published by HarperCollins[8] and other book publishers internationally, and have led to her writing about food for the Los Angeles Times[9] and other leading media outlets internationally.
She was based in Los Angeles from 2004-2015, where she shaped a career arranging strings and playing acoustic and electric violin, and composing original music for soundtracks, notably for two feature films: To Be Friends [10] and The Owls.[11] Her performance and arranging work for film, TV and multiple recording artists touches upon several genres, including orchestral, rock music, pop music, world music, and film scores.
In 2014, she started designing multisensory, multimedia immersive experiences in New York based on her music compositions, food concepts, and emerging ideas from neuroscience and psychology. She did this leading a team of artists and scientists from many disciplines for each event. In May 2017, she presented a TEDx Talk [12] about this work in Bend, Oregon.
She is based between New York, London, Austin TX, and Los Angeles.