Polina Fradkina is a concert pianist and lecturer, performing extensively at recitals and in ensembles. She has recorded and released five solo albums and collaborated on many albums with various musicians. Her performances attract different audiences from academic venues such as the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic and the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall to Art Spaces and Jazz Clubs. In the spring of 2021, she gave a presentation at TEDx Talks. In addition to academic classical music, Polina is interested in cross-cultural projects related to her professional activities. Some of her projects include:
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a program "Melancholy" where classical music meets sound design;
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an educational project "Metamusic" about the relations between music and physiology;
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a duet "In-Temporalis" with Cuban percussionist Yoel Gonzalez, which aims to unite classical and Afro-Cuban cultural traditions.
In March 2022, after the war with Ukraine began, Polina and her husband left Russia and now live in Denmark. Since then, she has given a multitude of concerts as a soloist and in collaboration with Danish musicians; among them: Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, Signe Asmussen, Katrine Gislinge, Hanne Tofte Jespersen, Tobias Van der Pals, Christine Pryn, Pål Eide. She has also been involved in several Danish projects such as:
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Frederiksberg Festival, Golden Age Festival, Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter, HALV12 Kammerkoncert;
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“The End”, an upcoming musical drama feature film by the Oscar-nominated Director Joshua Oppenheimer and produced by Final Cut Studios, starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon;
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Concert-lecture program on the connection between Rhetoric and Music at the Rhetoric Department at the University of Copenhagen.
Polina was born into a family of renowned musicologist and authors. Her grandfather,
I. Finkelstein, was a Soviet composer who worked as an assistant to D. Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory. Polina began her musical journey at the age of five. Graduating from the Musical Lyceum at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, she then pursued further studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where she also completed postgraduate degree. Additionally, she graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University and the St. Petersburg Institute of Depth Psychology.