Walter Afanasieff: From the Foster City to “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
It’s a tale of local talent hitting the big time, and it starts right here in Foster City. While the world knows Walter Afanasieff (@wafanasieff) as the Grammy Award–winning producer, songwriter, and composer behind global hits for superstars like Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, his musical journey was fundamentally shaped by the early 1970s jazz-rock scene in Foster City. Vladimir Nikitich Afanasiev (Russian: Владимир Никитич Афанасьев) was born on February 10, 1958 in São Paulo, Brazil. His father was Russian, while his mother, who…