I think Regina is an incredible talent. Her voice is one of those that is effortlessly melodic with perfect natural pitch and tone, and she plays like a concert pianist. When her family arrived in America when she was ten, they had given up almost everything. They had no money and couldn’t afford a piano for her. Her mother had been a music conservatory teacher in Russia, but took up teaching in a severely deprived Bronx public school where she had to huddle together a class of elementary age kids in the middle of a gymnasium with no windows, which the whole school had to walk through to get to the bathroom at one end. Yet they managed to send Regina for piano lessons, and she feels it saved her life.

Many of today’s singer-songwriters I could take or leave, but Regina’s one I think has really got something. Perhaps it’s her Russian roots. Regina had heard of TED, and seen some of the downloadable TEDtalks, including this one by Sir Ken Robinson which has been so inspirational to educators and creative people around the world. She was delighted when we got in touch with her to invite her to come and play. Yet when we spoke on the phone a week ago, she was feeling very intimidated, having seen her name listed among nuclear physicists, ocean explorers, architects and social reformers. She couldn’t imagine what she could possibly say that would be worthy of that company. I told her she didn’t need to say anything, she could just sing. “Really? Oh god I’m so relieved!” And sing she did. She played us ‘Apres Moi’, and melted hearts when she broke into Russian in the second verse. She started—and then forgot!—a song called ‘Genius Next Door’, and in her nervousness mumbled, “now what am I going to play for 18 minutes?” Of course, TED loves it when people reveal their humanity, and she had won us all over. She played two very personal but mellow songs, then wrapped up with ‘On The Radio’, which of course many people recognised. But a song that I’d thought of as a pop song took on a whole new dimension in this context. She struck such a chord with me with these lyrics:

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else’s heart
Pumping someone else’s blood

(Pic: David Geller)

Over the next 24 hours I heard an outpouring of admiration for Regina from the TED crowd. I chatted to her last night at a party and she was completely awestruck and overwhelmed by what she’s heard and seen at the conference. Yet her presence here is what TED’s all about: the give and take of brilliant people from many different fields and backgrounds, melting into a flow of ideas that inspires us to action.

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