About Marina
Marina has an extensive background in piano performance,
composition and music education. Her love and passion for music keeps her students inspired and motivated.
Marina offers a unique approach to piano instruction for
beginning through advanced students, for children as young as five yeas old to adults. Her music teaching is based on a synthesis of American and Russian methods of music schools. She treats each student with an individual attention to their needs, abilities and learning styles, ultimately creating a positive atmosphere for all.
The capacity for understanding and creating music is in everyone. Learning to play an instrument is a lifelong source of enjoyment, self-expression, and an opportunity for growth.
Marina comes from a professional artistic family; her mother is a concert pianist and her father a well-known artist. Her early music education began at the Special Music School for Gifted Children,where she graduated with honors in Piano and Composition.
Marina's later studies were at the Moscow Conservatory, where she received her Master of Music degree in Piano and Composition and a B.A. degree Cum Laude in Piano Performnce and Music Education from the Tashkent Conservatory. Marina has worked extensively as a music teacher, developing her own teaching method before moving to the United States. Her students won prestigious music Competitions and Awards, and continued their music education in best music schools all over the world. Many of them became professional musicians.
After moving to US, Marina established herself as a music teacher in New York and later in Los Angeles. While in New York, she worked at the Lucy Moses School of Music and Dance, where she continued teaching piano, and also conducted a Music Education/Theory Workshop. In Los Angeles, she taught piano at Le Lycee Français de Los Angeles, Horipro Music Academy, and Santa Monica Music Academy. She also worked for an animation studio as an editor and composer, recieving an Emmy Honors Award for contributing to the Emmy Award-winning program "Rugrats".
Besides teaching and performing, Marina is an exceptionally gifted composer, with major works for orchestra, theater, film and animation. Currently, Marina is teaching at her West Los Angeles Creative Piano Studio and serving as a President of MTAC West LA branch.
"It is a great pleasure to write on behalf of Marina Kalantarova. Marina is a person of unusual creativity and absolutely stellar personal qualities. She has a fresh, very creative view on teaching music, and really loves communicating her ideas. She is always fully professional and students feel comfortable with her. I am very impressed with Marina's dedication to her art and her devotion to teaching. I highly reccomend Marina to anyone interested in learning music. "
Genya Paley
Music Educator of Young People's Division
Lucy Moses School for Music