Yuri Productions

Listed in the order of participating in the label's projects...

Kenton Lee -- piano, vocals, arrangements; composer and conductor -- (project of 2005)
Yuri Mamchur -- piano, keyboards, arrangements; composer and producer -- (projects of 2005, 2008)
John Mitchell -- guitar, vocals, arrangements; composer and producer -- (project of 2008)
John Jowitt -- bass -- (project of 2008)

Kenton Lee began his music studies at the age of five in Minnesota. After one year of college he fell in love and married Benita Werner, his wife of more than 33 years, who is also a pianist. They relocated to California, where they pursued further experiences in church music, studio work and education. Following his graduation from San Diego State University as Music major, Kenton was invited to become the Minister of Music at Life Center in Tacoma, WA. He and Benita have served there since 1981.

Kenton gives weekly direction to the music of Life Center, including the
very popular Singing Christmas Tree. He and Benita have raised four very musical children who are successful, practicing musicians. Kenton also holds
a Masters in Worship Studies from Liberty University Seminary. He is a published arranger, composer, singer, and as “In the Harbor” displays, an accomplished pianist as well.

Yuri Mamchur was born in Halle, Germany, on January 8, 1982. He began his music studies at the age of five in Moscow, Russia. It all started with him playing by ear Richard Marx’s song “Wherever You Go” on his mom’s piano, as well as drumming out a bit of whatever was playing on the radio with silverware on a table.

Russian music school was a very challenging commitment for a hyper happy kid. It was actually a real government school that had grades, homework, and a variety of classes and responsibilities. First year, Yuri had private lessons at home with a great teacher, Valeria Kobeleva. At six, he passed his exams and auditions, and went for the real deal. The classes were taught from 4 pm until 9 pm, after the regular grade and secondary school, twice or three times a week. Yuri studied Piano, Music Theory, and Music Literature. “I managed to bail out of the Choir, because I would always lose my voice yelling or singing too loud (it’s still a problem today, also I can’t really sing that well…)”

“By the age of 11, I completely hated my music school. I was studying in Moscow City School 1205, where, as a 6th grader, I was taking English, English Literature, French, Russian, Russian Literature, Algebra, Geometry, Biology, Physics, Geography, Russian History, World History, PE, and… God knows what else! There was always tons of homework, and, combined with the Music School and puberty, it was driving me nuts.”

At 12, Yuri got himself kicked out of the Music School. “My teacher was making me learn the pieces she liked, which was new-age sounding, technically complicated cacophony without any melody.” Since early childhood, Yuri had a lot of respect for the melody and no tolerance for the noise, covered up by technicalities. He had always studied classical music, and usually had a say in at least one out of two pieces that he would practice. It took only one night of crying hard and not sleeping to realize the mistake of not accomplishing the very last year of studies. The next day Yuri went back to school, and his parents negotiated a new teacher for him.

The new teacher, Valentina Nadezhkinda, was a great woman who cared a lot about her students, and made lessons fun for a pre-teen. “I owe her a lot, and I have been very remiss staying in touch. I am hoping to remedy that soon; my solo piano CD will be in her hands and she can enjoy the fruits of hers and my labor.” Unfortunately, Russia is a complicated place to live in, and Valentina is not teaching piano anymore. Teaching doesn’t pay much, and one can’t survive on a teacher’s salary in Moscow. “I can assure you, Russia has lost many good musicians by not providing piano teachers like Valentina with basic financial needs…”

When Yuri was 13, he completed his music studies, and got involved with DJ-ing and setting up the equipment at his high school. “I was blessed to study at the School 1205, because it always had a very strong emphasis on performing arts and music. It had lots of very expensive advanced sound equipment.” Yuri’s desire and hard work put him in charge of all this equipment by the age of 14. That’s when he began learning the basics of sound engineering, while completely ignoring his classical music education.

“At some point I was asked to do a cover of some famous song, and I realized that I still had the 5-year-old-boy gift of playing by ear. I was fourteen when I was first introduced to amazing creatures named synthesizers.” Electronic instruments hooked Yuri on music forever, and almost killed his ability to read sheet music.

Yuri was done with his high school at the age of 16. That same summer (1998), he recorded his first original composition ““Memories””, that is the first track on the U-Rush CD. Yuri’s friend Aleksey Popov, who had been involved with Russian pop music, helped Yuri with programming and engineering, and Yuri had a fresh DAT cassette and a CD with his own first record!

Yuri took the recording to Kiev. Yuri’s paternal grandparents live in Ukraine, and he used to spend summers visiting them. “I persistently annoyed salesmen at different music stores on the subject of placing my track in some compilation. Lazer Records, a very successful music company and label at the time, agreed to place my song in one of their dance compilations.” It was the start of a great new friendship with Sheludko brothers, and also the start of a stable and solid income. Valentin and Vladimir offered Yuri to be their representative in Moscow. “Without thinking much I said “Yes, I do”. There is nothing like being an independent teenager, doing what you love, and having a stable income. Good times!”

Shortly after getting my new “job”, I saved up for a Roland XP-80 Music Workstation. Then came the Mackie mixer, then a powerful computer and AD-DA (analog-digital, and vice-versa) processor. At the age of 19, Yuri produced his first album under the name U-Rush: "Memories".

Interesting facts:

1) “My Dad and Grandpa are also Yuris, and I was always called “Yurasha” around the house, so it would be easier to identify the smallest of the Yuris. When it was time to name me as an artist for the Techno project, it kind of came naturally – “U-Rush”.”

2) “Mackie, my first and favorite mixer, was Fed-Exed to me from Redmond, WA, USA, where they individually build them by hand. It’s rather ironic that few years later I live only 15 miles away from the Mackie factory.”

At the age of 16, right out of school, Yuri started his studies at the Russian Tax Academy. He went for a Law major in 1998, and after five and a half years of school, Yuri received his European Law Degree with Honors.

“I am proud of my perfect GPA. However, I worked at a law firm for half a year, and found it extremely boring. Though I never really used the degree, the education helps a lot!”

In 2000, a summer exchange program brought Yuri to the YMCA Camp Seymour in Gig Harbor, Washington. Yuri fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. He loved his summer away from home, working as a camp counselor with kids of different ages. The new summer job helped Yuri to discover his other passion – working with kids, teaching and mentoring them.

Yuri was coming back to America again and again. In 2000 after working at camp, he traveled 20 states. In 2001, he worked on Mt. Rainier, and drove the West Coast’s Highway 1 from Seattle to San Diego. Year 2002 brought Yuri to Orcas Island, where he held a summer job, and became part of the community (a very musical, artistic, and successful one). In 2003, Yuri came for internships with the Discovery Institute based in Seattle, and the Philanthropy Roundtable, based in Washington DC. He also took classes at the Georgetown University.

“A lot of exciting things happened during these years. I became very independent. I learned to do what I liked and what I was good at. Later, I served as a Vice-Principal back at the Moscow School 1205. I visited 45 states. I’ve been to the White House a few times and spoke at the US Congress. I saw Bill Clinton and met George Bush. I made a lot of precious friends, and decided that I wanted to live in America.”

In 2004, right off the plane from Moscow, Yuri drove to Camp Seymour to volunteer with kids. “One of the kids was Johnny Hammer. I was so jetlagged, that I barely remembered meeting his family. Later on, they invited me for a dinner, then another dinner, and eventually we became great friends.” Jim and Tanya Hammer have four blonde energetic boys – Eric, Peter, Jax and Johnny. The Hammers helped Yuri to get in touch with Kenton Lee, and supported his work on “In the Harbor”.

Yuri’s parents live in Moscow, and they don’t plan on moving to America. Yuri’s dad served as a Chief of Communications for the Defense Ministry. He had to quit his job for the same reasons Valentina quit hers. Now he is a VP for a Moscow development company, and the president of a charitable foundation, which he manages but doesn’t own. Yuri’s mother is a doctor, Ph.D., and she works for the Russian Federal Government, supervising health standards at schools and camps. “All of my grandparents are alive, they are doing well, and I am fortunate for all the time I get to spend with them when visiting Moscow on business trips.”

Yuri works full-time as a Director of a foreign policy program, the Real Russia Project, at the Discovery Institute. Part of his job is managing the Russia Blog that provides commentary and dialogue on a lot of interesting subjects about modern-day Russia. “It is challenging to compose, practice, and record along with a full-time job, but I’m hoping to get it all done.”

“The beautiful Pacific Northwest and my work with kids (including absolutely awesome piano lessons with Peter and Johnny Hammer) give me enough energy and inspiration to compose more and be optimistic regarding my future in the US. I am ready for a change and am looking forward to moving to the East Coast in the nearest future.”

“Thank you for reading that much text on a music website, and feel free to buy a CD! :)”

John Mitchell: "I started playing piano when I was 6, because my mom said I should", says John. "When I was about 13 I saw Eric Clapton on TV and I just thought that was really cool...well, and I thought, wow, I wanna play the guitar".

At 17, John recorded with Annie Lennox. Later, in 1997, he joined the highly acclaimed progressive rock outfit Arena.

In 2002, he started playing for Asia's John Wetton, and did an amazing guitar work on "Rock of Faith" album as well as on the tour.

In 2004, John teamed up with Pete Trewavas (bass player from Marillion), John Beck (the keyboard player from It Bites), and Chris Maitland (drummer from Porcupine Tree) to create the band KINO.

KINO's debut album "Picture" was released in February 2005. The album was met with enthusiasm by international audience, and received positive recognition from the music press. The band has played multiple gigs across Europe and America, performing both, on its own tours, and as a support band for the 2005 European tour of Spock's Beard. After the performance at the Calprog festival in Los Angeles on 12th July 2006, KINO announced that recording of their second album was on hold, while Pete Trewavas worked with Marillion.

After months of silence but continued interest from the fans, John, being a huge fan of It Bites since his teenage years, was invited to take over the band’s lead role. The new It Bites are now in the process of writing and recording songs for a new album.

In 2006, Classic Rock Society awarded John as “Best Guitarist of the Year”.

John also leads his own band, The Urbane. Their first album "Neon" received positive critical acclaims upon its release in 1999. The band’s second project "Glitter", released in 2004, has also done very well. The Urbane has supported a number of well-known musicians in concerts throughout the UK and Europe. The band has played with Marillion, Kings X, Steve Hogarth, Bowes & Morley (Thunder), and Asia. At the moment, The Urbane is working on the new album "Straylight".

John runs his own recording studio in Reading. With decades of production experience under his belt, John has worked with some of the best in the industry, including such acclaimed rock artists as Deep Purple. Over the years, the Outhouse Studios has served a great number of classic and modern-day bands, including Funeral For A Friend. Enter Shikari mixed and produced their gold-selling debut album at the Outhouse Studios.

Many believe that John’s mastership in guitar will put him down in history as one of the best.

John Jowitt is a bass guitarist known for his work with UK progressive bands IQ, Jadis, Arena, and Frost. He has been awarded the British Classic Rock Society's award for the Best Bass Player nine times, each year from 1993 to 1998, and again, from 2002 to 2004.