Picture this: A piano recital for beginning students at the St. John School of the Arts. Mostly it’s parents in the audience, smiling encouragingly while their tots plunk their way through “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
Then a little blond 6-year-old sits down at the keyboard. She starts playing a Russian dance song with both hands, and everyone’s ears prick up. But she’s not pleased. “I’m going to start again,” she declares, resettles herself, and then plays through the piece beautifully.
This 6-year-old is now 15-year-old Elena Magnie, and she’s just released her first professionally recorded album of original music entitled “Green.” The album was released March 21 and is available on all major platforms including Spotify, YouTube, Pandora and Apple Music.
Magnie is well known throughout St. John. She’s been performing alongside her musician parents, Lauren and Bo Magnie, since she was 4. Fans of open mic nights at Concordia and Pickles will recall her belting out “Hit the Road, Jack” as a young child. For the album, she goes by Elena Serene, using her middle name, Serene, instead of her last name, Magnie.
Ten of the 11 songs on “Green” were written by Elena Serene, and they display her pure soprano voice in a variety of genres – rock, pop, and even folk. The only song she didn’t write is “Always Come back Home,” an uplifting gospel-tinged tune written by her grandfather, John Magnie, who toured for years with the Subdudes. On this song, and on others, like the ballad “Left Out in the Rain,” listeners can hear the emerging woman in her voice.
For her own compositions, she takes a line of conversation or an imagined scene, starts on a melody, and then adds chords. “I don’t really write about my own life,” she said, except in the song “True Story” in which she tells how she invents a narrator for her songs.
It begins, “So let’s face it I’m a kid/ I write about stuff I never did/ and this may be my only song that’s true/ It’s apparent that I’m a child/and my life’s not exactly wild/but everyone wants a song ‘bout feeling blue.”
Elena Serene recorded the album over the last year at Coral Star Studio in Coral Bay, St. John. The production was a family affair: mom Lauren sings vocals and plays guitar; dad Bo plays percussion, drums, bass and sings vocals; brother Otis, now 10 years old, plays drums; and grandpa John plays accordion and keyboard. “A lot of the songs were collaborations,” Elena Serene said. “All of the people on the album contributed with words or some melody.
Studio producer Allen Clapp was also integral to the album’s overall success, Elena Serene said. “He offered a lot of advice on different production styles and word changes.”
Elena Serene was born on St. Thomas but raised since infancy in Coral Bay. She has chosen homeschooling for her education because it allows her the flexibility to go more deeply into things that interest her. “For example, I just finished my science curriculum, so now I can study music theory,” she said.
Elena plans to continue on the path of being a professional musician. Her parents support her goals and give her lots of leeway to develop her own style. “I give her very little vocal training,” said Lauren Magnie. “I only step in if I hear her straining, and then I’ll give her some techniques. I want her to develop her own voice.”
Lauren Magnie said she’s proud of her daughter’s work on the album “Green.” “We’re super excited to see where she goes from here.”
Elena Serene now performs every Monday with her parents at Lovango Rum Bar in Cruz Bay, at open mic night on Thursdays at Miss Lucy’s, and twice a month on Saturdays at Johnny Lime.
