Marina Baranova

Web: https://www.marinabaranova.com/

Cf.: Conversation between the music journalist Dr. Rainer Aschemeier and the pianist Marina Baranova  about her adoration for Schumann.

...she is a passionate reader of time. Unbound by past and future, time manifests itself as a constant protagonist of her playing. When she plays the piano, it is as though her fingers would carefully explore the intricate cracks and crevices on a slightly rugged time carpet, seeking the mysteries buried in the spaces between the piano keys.

Born in the Ukraine into a musical family, it was at an early age that Marina Baranova learned to improvise on the piano. Blessed with a natural synesthetic perception, she is able to connect color with sound and tactile sensations. At the age of five she entered a school for specially gifted children and some years later had her first concert appearances. At the turn of the century she moved to Germany where she had the honor of being one of the last students of Wladimir Krajnew at the School for Music and Drama in Hanover.

Marina Baranova received several international awards. Today she performs European wide as a soloist as well as with chamber ensembles and successfully clears her way to the hearts of her audience. Besides her classical appearances Marina Baranova dedicates herself also to crossover projects and experimental collaborations. Among other activities she improvises to live painting and modern dances, explores brain-teasing extended piano techniques with Free Jazz musicians and pushes the boundaries between classical romanticism and the Klezmer tradition by collaborating with Klezmer legend Giora Feidman. Numerous works have been dedicated to her by young composers around the world. Most recently she worked with the Gewandhaus-Quartet, members of the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and played very successful at the Schumannfest Bonn.

Rarely does one musician bear so many qualities: dazzling finger work, slinky geometry of phrasing and the mesmerizing transfiguration of emotions. But above all: Marina Baranova strives to embody the music rather than to interpret it. Every piece she plays leads into its innermost glowing core. Every narrative or musical gesture becomes a universal symbol under her fingertips – embracing all stories told or to be told.