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Alina Kiryayeva / Music

Graduate Student Researcher
November 2018 – September 2020

Project: Mashing through the Conventions: Convergence of Popular and Classical Music

Alina Kiryayeva

Professional concert pianist and chamber musician Alina Kiryayeva is a Doctoral Candidate in the Music Department of The Graduate Center. Ms.Kiryayeva’s dissertation research project titled “Mashing through the Conventions” is based on the evolving relationship between the popular music culture and the traditional Western music literature.  Ms,Kiryayeva has performed in more than a dozen countries, including her native Ukraine, the U.S., Russia, Mexico, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Holland and Japan. Venues & collaborations include the Kharkov State Philharmonic & State Opera Theatre Orchestras, The Imperial Valley Symphony Orchestra, the New York Symphonic Ensemble Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, the Morse Recital Hall, the Concerto Takes Manhattan Series at Yamaha Hall, the Smithsonian Museum and Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.). She has also toured with the clarinetists Charles Neidich and Maksim Shtrykov, and counter-tenor Terry Barber.

In 2013, Kiryayeva released solo piano album “Sonatas,” which she recorded at New York City’s Klavierhaus, helmed by Grammy-nominated sound engineer Patrick Lo Re. It was featured on 150th broadcast of “Women in Music” on CKWR Radio in Ontario, Canada. The release of the second album, “Moving Pictures,” in 2015 was followed by a concert tour with over 70 dates across United States last season.

Kiryayeva gave her first solo recital at age 8 and her solo debut with orchestra at 11. She is one of few classical pianists that completed both Bachelor and Master degrees at The Juilliard School of Music on full scholarship; and was also awarded the Fannie Gottlieb-Harkavi Scholarship and Susan Rose Piano Scholarship. Her awards include First Prize winner of Italy’s Senigallia International Competition, and top prizes in the Grace Welsh International Competition and the California Young Artist International Competition. Kiryayeva has been honored by Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, with the State Award for Achievements in Arts.