michaela catranis

Michaela Catranis is an American pianist and composer. One of ten children, Michaela discovered the old upright sitting in her living room to be a place to daydream, a place to explore fantasy and emotion through sound. She started piano lessons at age four and went on to study piano performance with Alexander Shtarkman at the Peabody Conservatory. Hanspeter Kyburz, Wolfgang Heiniger and Wolfgang Rihm are among the teachers most influential in her writing and have helped her find a unique space for herself as both interpreter and composer. Recent highlights include the TONALi 18 composition prize, the premiere of her piece JEITA for solo cello in the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and a residency with the Bagamoyo Institute for Arts and Culture in Tanzania. Michaela seeks  a musical language that both recollects and provokes, drawing inspiration from literature, dance, the visual arts, and her travels in an explorative and imaginative process.