Biography

 

Maryam Mehraban was born in July 1989 in Tehran, Iran. She is an Iranian pianist, pedagogue, and researcher based in Germany.

She began learning music at the age of four when she received a keyboard for her birthday. Her first concert experience was at the age of twelve. Maryam and her younger sister Marjan, who plays the Kanun, were raised in an art-loving family.

In 2003, Maryam entered the Tehran Music School. During her high school years, she studied piano with renowned professors such as Farideh Behbood and Amir Sarraf. In 2007, she was admitted to the Higher School of Music and continued her academic studies with Delbar Hakimova and Raphael Minaskanian at the Art University of Tehran.

Her master's thesis, titled "A Study of Extended Piano Techniques in a Selected Number of Works of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century," was nominated as the best thesis of her year. Her interest in new and contemporary repertoire grew stronger. She values working with composers, analyzing their pieces, performing, and recording them highly.

In 2015, Maryam moved to Germany to study Instrumental Pedagogy at the University of Music, Drama, and Media Hanover. Her notable professors included Igor Tchetuev, Teppo Koivisto, and Christopher Oakden. During her studies, contemporary music was a major focus, and she worked intensively with Tatjana Prelevic, Darlén Bakke, and Snežana Nešić.

As an active performer, Maryam participated in numerous master classes, including those led by Rei Nakamura and Catherine Vickers. She interpreted works by Persian composers such as Alireza Mashayekhi, Hooshyar Khayam, Karen Keyhani, Mohammad Reza Tafazzoli, and Kiawasch SahebNassagh, including premieres and CD recordings. Since migrating to Germany, she has increasingly devoted herself to the performance of contemporary music from Europe and America. In November 2017, she premiered the work "Intervalle" by Gottfried Michael Koenig together with Raquel Marcos de la Rua in Hanover.

Maryam considers herself a contemporary pianist, teacher, and project manager. She is currently focusing on her doctoral studies, titled "Piano at the Center of Cultural Exchange; Intercultural Performance Practice Between Western and Eastern Music," which she is conducting under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jörn Peter Hiekel and Prof. Isabel Mundry at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz as well as the Zurich University of the Arts.

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