Elena was born on November 03.1962 in Odessa, Ukraine, on the Black Sea, capital of culture, where famous artists, musicians and authors like the violinist David Oistrakh and the artist Wladimir Strelnikow had their start.

In Odessa, Elena Beresnjak attended Stolyarsky State Music School and gained a degree as a concert pianist from the Odessa High School of Performing & Applied Arts.

While studying Elena discovered her passion for painting and took lessons at the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art. The contemporary artist from Saint Petersburg Ilya Glazunov praised them most profusely after which Elena attended the Academies of Art in Saint Petersburg and Moscow to improve her skills.

In 1985 she won First Prize in a chamber music contest in Kiev, in 1992 she moved to Diekholzen (Germany) to rejoin her husband, the artist and violinist Oleg Zubarev.

While Elena has had many exhibitions of her art in Germany and Russia, her life still is very affected by art and music. So in 2004 she had the great idea not just to paint canvas but also to paint musical instruments. Elena's ten painted violins, violas and cellos, with their distinctive names and evocative musical associations, have already becoming prized collectors' items.

Of course, Elena always insists on time for playing the piano in Oleg and Egmont Heinzmann's salon 10-member Wir Salonloewen, organized "as a contrast to the otherwise usually more serious work in the cultural orchestra."