The Amazing Walter Afanasieff

Walter Afanasieff was born Vladimir Nikitich Afanasev in São Paulo, SP, Brazil to parents Nikita and Tatiana. His family is from Russia and moved to Brazil in the late 1940s. Afanasieff studied music at the Conservatory of Music in San Mateo, California. Together with his musical mentor (production-wise), 80s top-producer Narada Michael Walden, Walter is a Grammy-award-winning record producer and songwriter who started out as Whitney Houston’s arranger, but rose to success co-writing and co-producing music with Mariah Carey. He has also written and produced music for many famous singers such as Regina Belle, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Céline Dion, Savage Garden, Destiny’s Child, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Kenny Loggins, Barbra Streisand, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Babyface, Lara Fabian, Michael Jackson, Josh Groban, Clay Aiken, Jordin Sparks, Leona Lewis, and many more. Afanasieff is a multi-instrumentalist; he plays drums, guitar, bass, and piano. He performs on most of his recordings (mainly keyboards, organ, piano, bass and drum-programming). In the large-scale arrangement he is known for producing, Afanasieff has worked with many well-known musicians and mixing engineers like Michael Landau (guitars), Nathan East (bass), Dann Huff (guitars), Mick Guzauski (mixing engineer), Greg Phillinganes (piano), and William Ross (string/orchestra arranger and conductor). The main productions took place at Afanasieff’s own recording studios (Wally World) in …