Serbian-born FIU alumna and award-winning pianist and composer Marta Brankovich, "The Black Swan of Piano", returns to her alma mater for an alumni concert. The performance marks her first of 2026.
2025 was a landmark year for Brankovich. Influential Women Magazine recognized Marta as one of the most influential women of 2025, and she began branching into more of a performing artist through her project Carpe Noctem, with guitarist Denver Cooper.
The duo combines classical pieces with rock and metal. This reimagining of classical music has put her in front of a wider audience, leading to sold-out shows and screaming full houses throughout 2025.
”We all noticed that after pandemic, classical music started to have that crossover element like Vivaldi techno, Bach with a rock band,” she said. “We heard that, and I decided to do something different.”
This concert is a celebration of 2025, the composers who left an indelible mark on her career, and her Serbian heritage.
Marta Brankovich was born in Belgrade, Serbia. There she got her start playing the piano, performing at the age of 6, and holding her first concerts at 11 years old. She was in school and performing during the Yugoslav wars.
“ As young artists, we organized concerts against war and during the sirens, so we performed, and we tried just to play, play, play, play,” she said. So we can one day go into a beautiful big world and uh, start over and try harder.”
Brankovich first came to the United States in 2001 to Illinois, where she finished a degree at Roosevelt University in Chicago and spent a year at Northwestern in Evanston. Her fellow professor took an opportunity to teach in Los Angeles, leaving her with a decision to make.
With him leaving, Brankovich couldn’t stay in Chicago, but she didn’t want to live in L.A. She loved Chicago and the East Coast. She found out that world-renowned pianist Kemal Gekić taught at FIU.
After an impromptu audition, she was immediately accepted and started her second master's in Miami in 2006.
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“ He heard two measures of my Bach partita in C Minor,” she said. “ I remember like yesterday he brought Dr. Lopez and two other professors, and I sat down and played a 45-minute program for them from Bach to Beethoven, Bartók, and Chopin, and I got in immediately.”
Sunday’s concert will include two compositions Brankovich is performing for the first time.
There are two compositions Brankovich is officially performing for the first time. One of them is Fredrick Kaufman’s “The Whole in Parts”, which can be heard on Brankovich’s second American album, “Tempest.”
Years ago, Gekić called her and told her she needed to learn this piece because it would bring her many connections and opportunities in the future.
“ I see scores, and they're like quadruple harder than I expected,” she said. “Rachmaninoff is a piece of cake for Kaufman's writing, and he's a live composer who is there with you next to you and wants to hear every single note because he knows his music. So it took time.”
Kaufman is the founder of FIU’s School of Music. Brankovich said Kaufman is flying in to see her concert. He insisted that this performance be livestreamed because he wants people in Denver, LA and other places and other universities hear her play.
The second composition Brankovich is performing for the first time is “You”, her latest original piece. She said this came from the deepest corners of her life. Brankovich did not want to reveal too much about “You”. She said it is a surprise for those who come to the performance in person.
“ ”You” is a very simple neoclassical composition, maybe one of the simplest I ever composed,” she said. “But I think it's a beautiful melody and it's playing with a classical narrative and registers … I think it's special in every way.”
IF YOU GO
What: FIU Alumni Concert - Marta Brankovich
When: 5pm Sunday, January 18
Where: Florida International University Wertheim Performing Arts Center Recital Hall
Information: Here
