About me
Marija
Bokor
Roots
Marija Bokor was born in 1992 in St.Gallen (Switzerland) into a Serbian family of musicians. She received her first piano lessons at the age of five from the Russian piano teacher Ema Friedman.
Training and artistic influence
In her youth, she studied for four years in Oliver Schnyder’s private class before continuing her studies in Lucerne with Professor Konstantin Lifschitz. She completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with him. She completed her soloist exam with honours.
She also takes part in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Leon Fleischer, Robert Levin, Menahem Pressler, Tatiana Zelikman, Homero Francesch and Hamish Milne.
Concerts
Her concerts have taken her to the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (ISR), the Kärntner Sinfonieorchester Klagenfurt (AUT), the Orquestra Jazz Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paolo (BRA), the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra (CHN), the Hradec Kralové Philharmonic Orchestra (CZE), the Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra (TUR), the Arpeggione Chamber Orchestra (CHE) and the Endless Mountain Festival Orchestra (USA).
She made her US debut in summer 2011 with a Mozart piano concerto with the Endless Mountain Festival Orchestra under the direction of Stephen Gunzenhauser. In the summer of 2015, she was invited for the second time by Maestro Muhai Tang to play Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto in G minor with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra in China. In 2013 she won the Migros Culture Percentage Foundation Scholarship and in 2017 the Schenk Foundation Soloist Competition, as a result of which she was invited to perform as a soloist with the Argovia Philharmonic (CHE).
In June 2018, she will make her debut with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in B flat minor at the KKL with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra LSO under the direction of James Gaffigan.
Albums
Marija’s debut CD with works by Yusupov, Bartok and Vaughan Williams will be released in 2022 in cooperation with Radio SRF 2 Kultur under the Prospero Classical label and will be well received.
The second CD will follow in 2024 – a song programme called ‘Songs of Travel’ with the Swiss baritone Alexandre Beuchat, which will be nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award, among others.
In addition to her own projects, Marija is recording her debut CD with violinist Renato Wiedemann, featuring works by Swiss and Brazilian composers, which will be released in 2023.
Educational activities
Teaching also plays a major role in Marija’s musical work. In addition to her own teaching activities at the MKZ (Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich), she has also been a lecturer in didactics (piano pedagogy) at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2024.