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Mirna Lekić

 PIANIST

Biography

Born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mirna Lekić is a pianist and educator living in New York City.  She plays a wide range of repertoire that reflects her interests in intercultural music, historical performance practice, and contemporary works. As a recitalist and chamber musician she has performed in the United States, Canada and Europe, at venues including Carnegie-Weill Hall, Symphony Space, Chicago Cultural Center, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Théâtre de l’Ile Saint-Louis in Paris, and the Hall of the St. Petersburg Union of Composers and the Gorki Leninskiye Museum in Russia. Her performances are featured on Centaur, Furious Artisans, and Romeo Records and have been broadcast on WQXR, WNYC, WFMT, WPRB, KPFK, KALW, and Bosnian TV and radio stations. Most recently, she was a laureate of The American Prize piano competition.

A founding member of Ensemble 365 and Duo RoMi, Mirna has presented premieres at the Queens New Music Festival, Princeton University Sound Kitchen, International Festival for Contemporary Performance, the Firehouse Space, College Music Society Conferences, Composer’s Voice series in New York, and in collaboration with Dr. Faustus and the Composers Now Festival. Her summer festival experience includes American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, London Master Classes, Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance and International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York, Accademia Europea Villa Bossi in Italy, Westfield International Academy at Cornell, Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, and Baščaršija Nights Festival in Sarajevo.

Mirna's work has been supported by the New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Grant, Artists International Special Presentation Award, City University of New York Music Fellowship, NEH-Kupferberg Holocaust Center grant, and multiple PSC-CUNY awards. Recent pedagogical publications include two chapters in Humanistic Pedagogy Across the Disciplines: Approaches to Mass Atrocity Education in the Community College Context, edited by Amy E. Traver and Dan Leshem. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan). She has also written for the American Music Teacher.

Mirna studied piano with Ursula Oppens, Irina Morozova, Vladimir Valjarević and Douglas Humpherys, and has participated in fortepiano classes taught by Bart van Oort and Malcolm Bilson. She graduated with high honors from the Eastman School of Music, the Mannes College of Music, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she earned a doctorate with a dissertation focusing on the music of Claude Debussy. She subsequently presented her research at several national and international conferences.  She has also studied The Art of Practicing techniques with Madeline Bruser.

Mirna serves as an Associate Professor of Music at Queensborough Community College - City University of New York and as Associate Faculty in Piano at Columbia University. She has also taught piano pedagogy at Mannes School of Music. She is a recipient of the CUNY Academy Henry Wasser Award for outstanding assistant professors and the Excellence in Faculty Scholarship Award from Queensborough Community College. 

 

(Photo: Beatrice Rana)

 

 

 

REVIEWS

 

 

"Smart, entertaining, intuitive classical pianist"

New York Music Daily

 

"Excellent playing; beautiful colors and style."   

Jeffrey Biegel, pianist/ American Prize judge 

 

"Takemitsu's score is exquisitely balanced, its otherworldliness superbly evoked by Karen Rostron and Mirna Lekic."

 Colin Clarke, Fanfare

 

"Mirna Lekic's sound was beautiful even when she played in the register with the necklace, and her rhythmic acuity gave subtle energy to every gesture."

Frank Daykin, New York Concert Review

 

"Gracious, energetic, spirited, lovely and assured playing. Physical ease is a highlight throughout. The performance is focused on sound and not on show - refreshing! A lovely presentation in all respects, a pleasure to listen to."  

The American Prize Jury

 

"intelligent, sincere, and restrained pianism"

 Examiner

 

"Serious, compelling, thought-provoking music, performed at exceptionally high levels of artistry."

David Katz (The American Prize Honorable Mention comments for Eastern Currents album)

 

"A beautiful performance! Rich, full and elegant sound... Very strong musical sense... poised, polished and colorful."

Liliane Questel, concert pianist 

 

"Wonderful ears, talented and very musical... a pleasure to hear."

Jose Ramos Santana, concert pianist 

 

 



Para America Magica at Symphony Space (3/10/2011):

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/71282e60-4e61-11e0-98eb-00144feab49a.html#axzz1IFHKN5tv

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/arts/music/para-america-magica-at-symphony-space-music-review.html