Black Swan of Piano Marta Brankovich

• Zoran Hristić (1938- ):
• 1 Toccata (Live) 02:38
• Svetislav Božić (1954- ):
• 2 Lyric of Athos (Live) 06:11
• Marta Brankovich:
• 3 Victory (Live) 04:14
• 4 War 04:11
• Erik Satie (1866-1925):
• 5 Gnossiennes: No. 1, Lent 04:21
• 6 Gnossiennes: No. 2, Avec étonnement 02:28
• 7 Gnossiennes: No. 3, Lent 03:15
• Fredrick Kaufman (1936- ):
• 8 Metamorphosis 10:15
• 9 Yin and Yang 09:05
• Clint Mansell (1963- ):
• 10 Lux Aeterna (From "Requiem for a Dream") [Arr. for Solo Piano] 02:48
• Total Runtime 49:26

Info for Black Swan of Piano

This rather odd concept album/performer portrait has genuine unusual repertoire credentials. Brankovich hails from Serbia, and the two works by fellow Serbian composers - a headlong Toccata by Hristić and the rather impressionistic Lyric by Božić, with its melancholy melodiousness derived from Orthodox chant - are both tonal and inflected by the modes of Serbian traditional music. So are the two short compositions by the pianist, which present their melodies over tolling accompaniments before breaking into paroxysms of uncontrolled vehemence, in memory of the victims of violence in her country in the 1990s. She settled and studied in Miami, where Kaufman, whose Guernica concerto we offered in 2013 (08P074) now teaches. His two tough, dissonant and passionate works - the solo one putting its basic material through a wide variety of idioms, modernistic, contrapuntal and sometimes suggesting the composer's jazz background - borderline tonal and climaxing in clusters (Brankovich seems to have derived something of her own idiom from him), take the lion's share of the disc. The Gnossiennes, presumably here because the pianist likes them, and a piano arrangement of a film theme by Mansell, who scored the movie 'Black Swan' from which Brankovich borrowed her stage image, fill out the CD.

Marta Brankovich, piano

Marta Brankovich
was born in Belgrade, Serbia. She was only 21 years old when she graduated from the University of Belgrade, as the youngest student with the highest GPA in the generation. During her studies she received numerous international and domestic awards, scholarships, and public recognitions including winning the Third place on the famous Rubinstein piano competition in 1997 and receiving a special honorary scholarship from her country for making an outstanding career in the US in 2005. During her studies in Serbia she has accomplished another diploma in music marketing that gave her different perspective how classical pianists need to address a New Age demand of performance level. Marta is currently living in Miami where she has accomplished second Master diploma in piano performance in the class of well known pianist and professor Kemal Gekić in Florida International University. During her master studies she was participant of numerous festivals from EPTA in Europe, IKIF in New York, to New Music Festival and Subtropics Festival in South Florida.

Since 2010, Marta has held over one hundred and fifty solistic recitals in all major halls of Eastern Coast of USA, receiving great reviews and often being called ‘A New Force Of American Pianism’- News Magazine, and ‘Black Swan of Piano’- Miami Herald. She recorded for TV and Radio in Europe and USA. She has been collaborating with many international artists including playing in a piano duet with her own professor Kemal Gekić, receiving great reviews.

In the summer of 2016 she had her second concert tour in Europe in four years with fourteen recitals and lectures at various music concert venues in six different cities from Prague to Belgrade, Skopje, and Istanbul where she recorded for international TV and radio stations including famous Radio Vltava, and Radio Prague channel 3. In the next two years Marta is invited on another european concert tour including countries such as Germany, Italy, and Czech Republic. She is also invited to do the doctoral studies in Europe. In January of 2017 Marta became recording artist for Parma Recordings and Navona Records. Her first CD for Parma is featuring music of Serbian, French and American composers of the 20th and 21st century. Recently Marta became member of FOCM, Friends of Collegium Musicum that is helping young musical talents all over the world get the scholarships for Florida Universities by performing on recitals all over Florida. Marta is the owner and artistic director of the School for Talents called Agitato located in Miami, Florida.

This album contains no booklet.