Marina Arsenijevic

about

Marina Arsenijevic, who performs simply as Marina, is a Serbian-born pianist who escaped from the former Yugoslavia during the multinational war to dislodge dictator Slobodan Milosevic in 1999 by disguising herself as an old woman. Before the war she had been a glamour girl of Yugoslav classical music, performing in skimpy outfits under rock-concert lighting on a transparent piano; some called her the Balkan Madonna. Marina experienced various hardships before deciding to leave the country; she was forced to flee to a basement when bombs disrupted her rehearsal with the Serb National Philharmonic Orchestra and to play a concert within earshot of frontier fighting at the behest of the Serb military. "My best-selling composition, 'Kosovo,' was written as I felt trapped in limbo between life and death, not knowing whether I would finish it," Marina said. Marina's exotic image and the ripped-from-the-headlines aspects of her story are unusual on their own, and her actual music is likewise distinctive. Given conventional classical training by a Russian instructor at the University for the Arts in Belgrade, Marina has described her music as classical crossover, Balkan soul, or ethno-classical. She delivers the pure virtuosity one would expect from her musical background. Marina herself has indicated that her music is a "blend of classical, Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Slavic, and gypsy heritages with 21st century rhythms." Yet Newsday noted in reviewing her January 2003 New York

top songs

albums

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Danube Rising

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Only Love

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Chopin Waltz Grande Valse Brillante in E-flat Major Op.18

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You'll Never Walk Alone

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A Piece Of My Sky

Chopin Waltz A flat major Op. 64 No. 3

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Balkan Sounds

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Fire and Soul

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Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

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Save the Last Dance for Me

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Official MY Balkan Soul

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Flight of the Bumblebee with R&B beats

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