Biography
Marta Brankovich, a pianist born in Serbia, relocated to the United States in 2005. Since then she has appeared in numerous concerts throughout the country and has also built a parallel career as an instructor. She markets herself under the title “Black Swan of Piano.”
She entered the world in Belgrade, Serbia, and has performed under the fuller name Marta Milošević-Branković; in the United States she employs the streamlined spelling without diacritical markings. Her earliest piano lessons were with Jakuthon Mlhailovich. At the University of Belgrade she completed a double major in piano performance and music marketing, finishing with the highest GPA in her class. Third place at the 1997 Rubinstein Piano Competition followed, and a Serbian government scholarship subsequently enabled her to continue her development in America.
After settling in Miami, she worked with Kemal Gekić at Florida International University. While completing her master’s degree she performed at festivals that included the European Piano Teachers Association Festival in Ireland, the International Keyboard Institute Festival in New York, the New Music Festival in Florida, and others. Roughly 150 concerts have taken her along the U.S. eastern seaboard, sometimes in duo programs with her teacher Gekić. She has kept ties to the Balkans, undertaking two European tours—the most recent in 2016—and appearing on Radio Vltava and Radio Prague Channel 3.
Navona Records signed her in 2017, resulting in the album Black Swan of the Piano, a recital that featured several of her own compositions together with works by Satie, several Serbian composers, Fredrick Kaufman, and others. She has continued to use the “Black Swan of Piano” sobriquet. In 2021 she was featured in the film The Whole in Parts, playing music by Kaufman. Navona released her next recording, Marta, The Tempest: I Will Be the Last Storm Encountered, in 2023.
She entered the world in Belgrade, Serbia, and has performed under the fuller name Marta Milošević-Branković; in the United States she employs the streamlined spelling without diacritical markings. Her earliest piano lessons were with Jakuthon Mlhailovich. At the University of Belgrade she completed a double major in piano performance and music marketing, finishing with the highest GPA in her class. Third place at the 1997 Rubinstein Piano Competition followed, and a Serbian government scholarship subsequently enabled her to continue her development in America.
After settling in Miami, she worked with Kemal Gekić at Florida International University. While completing her master’s degree she performed at festivals that included the European Piano Teachers Association Festival in Ireland, the International Keyboard Institute Festival in New York, the New Music Festival in Florida, and others. Roughly 150 concerts have taken her along the U.S. eastern seaboard, sometimes in duo programs with her teacher Gekić. She has kept ties to the Balkans, undertaking two European tours—the most recent in 2016—and appearing on Radio Vltava and Radio Prague Channel 3.
Navona Records signed her in 2017, resulting in the album Black Swan of the Piano, a recital that featured several of her own compositions together with works by Satie, several Serbian composers, Fredrick Kaufman, and others. She has continued to use the “Black Swan of Piano” sobriquet. In 2021 she was featured in the film The Whole in Parts, playing music by Kaufman. Navona released her next recording, Marta, The Tempest: I Will Be the Last Storm Encountered, in 2023.
Albums