Named “the Celine Dion of classical” by The Huffington Post, world class Canadian pianist MARIKA BOURNAKI is known for the combination of her effervescent youth and innovative approach to her art. Her evolution into an esteemed performer was documented by Bobbi Jo Hart, from the age of 12 to 20, for the multi award-winning feature-length documentary “I Am Not A Rock Star” and was a huge success at multiple international film festivals as well as being featured on BBC Four. The film has also been seen in Greece (ERT), The Netherlands (NTS), Norway (NRK), Sweden (SVT) the United Kingdom (BBC4), Australia (SBS) and New Zealand (Sky). She appears frequently as a soloist, as a duo with partner cellist Julian Schwarz, and is a founding member of the Mile-End Trio with Julian Schwarz and violinist Jeffrey Multer. In 2016, the Schwarz-Bournaki Duo was awarded 1st prize at the Boulder International Chamber Music Competition.
Ms. Bournaki is Assistant Professor of Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Shenandoah Conservatory at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va, serves on the piano faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC, is an artist in residence at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia, and is a frequent guest artist at Bargemusic in Brooklyn where she recently presented a complete cycle of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas. She is also a member of Piano Six’s New Generation, a touring ensemble that brings classical music to remote and underserved Canadian communities, as well as the pianist for the mixed ensemble “Frisson”. Marika holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where her principal teachers were Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio. She is represented by Parker Artists.