An Interview with Composer and Pianist Nina Siniakova

Abstract

The journal Problemy muzykal'noi nauki / Music Scholarship would like to present its readers with an interview with Nina Siniakova, a composer and pianist of a diverse cultural background and broad interests. Her music explores the eternal subjects of beauty, love, life, and death. Her colleagues describe her style as “unique and refined,” (Mark Hagerty, composer, USA) and that in their opinion makes Nina Siniakova “one of the most interesting composers of her generation.” (Krzysztof Meyer, Professor Emeritus, Cologne Hochschule für Musik) Her interests in musical genres span from music written in the contemporary classical style to minimalism, jazz, easy listening, and music for children.

Nina Siniakova is active as a composer, pianist, educator, and a sales representative at Cunningham Piano Company in Philadelphia. A Doctor of Musical Arts, she was born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, received her education at the Minsk Glinka Music College, the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory and the Musikhochschule in Cologne. Besides having developed her activities in music she has also studied theatrical acting professionally. Siniakova is a recipient of numerous awards, including the First Prize and the People’s Choice Award at the XII Open Competition of Composers named after Andrei Petrov in St. Petersburg, Russia (in the nomination “symphonic music” for her Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra), a stipend from the DAAD (the German Students’ Exchange Service), a stipend of Exploring the Metropolis program NYC and many others. As a pianist and a composer, she has appeared at the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space in New York, Harvard University, the Beethoven House in Bonn, the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Zink jazz Bar in New York. With such an assortment of diverse accomplishments in music, Nina Siniakova appeared to be the perfect musician to take an interview from which the readers of the journal would find of great substance. 

Keywords: Nina Siniakova, composer, pianist, Minsk, St. Petersburg, Cologne, United States of America, Philadelphia, contemporary music