In 1981, Russian film maker, Vladimir Alenikov was preparing to shoot a children's musical called "Adventures of Petrov and Vasechekin." The famous songwriter, Gennady Gladkov had already signed on to compose the score for the film when he suddenly fell ill. In order to keep the film on schedule, Alenikov rushed to find a replacement. After auditioning and dismissing four other composers, he decided to take a chance on a young and hungry Tanya Ostrovsky.

Tanya immediately dropped everything and began composing night and day, in Odessa and Moscow, to meet the incredible deadlines Alenikov had imposed. In the end, she had written ten complete songs in six days. An incredible feat. Alenikov's risk and Tanya's hard work finally paid off when the film was released. It opened in 1983 to great national success and the film's songs became widely popular across the country. To this day, Russian children and adults alike can sing the words or hum the melodies to Tanya's songs. With the immediate success of the film and it's soundtrack, Tanya found herself in high demand. For the first time in her life, Tanya had constant work, doing what she loved. She had become an instant celebrity. For the next six years she divided her time between composing for radio plays, theater, cartoons, TV shows, and even more films. But, even with her newfound status in her homeland, she began to dream an even larger dream. "I knew that I couldn't live in this colorless, black and white world anymore," she said. So, in 1990, she made her way to the United States, ending up in Atlanta where she has begun show casing her abilities through recent recitals of her original work. She is also passing on the musical knowledge she has acquired through the years by working closely with a small group of talented, and very lucky students at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The inset photos that you see are taken from the large collection of original compositions that Tanya has done. She has filled hundreds and hundreds of pages with her music, and continues to write every day.