Yulia Merten – concert musician, music pedagogue and winner of several competitions – was born in St. Petersburg as the daughter of a doctor’s family. She received her first piano lessons at the age of four. Three years later, teacher Irina Titova accepted the 7-year-old into her Domra class. Already at a young age, she appeared as Domra soloist in orchestral concerts and in Russia, USA, Germany, Spain and Poland. After attending the music high school, where the highly gifted student received the scholarship „Talents of Russia“, Prof. Igor Fotcenko took her under his wing. In the following four years she was able to further develop her art at the Musikkolleg of the St.Petersburg Conservatory.
During her studies with Prof. Alexander Makarov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory she worked as a soloist and orchestra musician in the state orchestra „Metelitsa“, St. Petersburg.
Along with musicians such as Valeriy Gergiev, Prof. Nikolay Kalinin, Prof. Ravil Martinov, Prof. Alexander Tzigankow, Anatoliy Gorobzov, Algerdas Paulavicus, Evgeniy Petrov, Igor Fonin and Dmitriy Hochlov, she participated in numerous concerts.
Yulia Merten graduated in the artistic and pedagogical fields as a concert musician, music pedagogue, orchestra/ensemble leader and conductor.
During her studies she took part in six different national and international competitions and won the 1st prize four times. At the All-Russian Competition in Tver she was awarded a special prize „For the best performance of the cantilena“.
In the further course of her career she joined the State Russian Folk Orchestra „V.V. Andreyev“, St. Petersburg, where she was acitive as a solo player/orchestral musician (first Domra).
At the same time Yulia Merten shone as a soloist in the Russian ensemble „Russky Stil“ with appearances in Russia, Switzerland and Europe.
A further professional station was the Russian National Pedagogical University „Gerzen“ in St. Petersburg, where she taught as a musical-scientific lecturer and music teacher for the leading instrument Domra. During this time she also inspired as a soloist in the quartet „Naigrish“.
Yulia Merten has been living in Germany since June 2011 and gives concerts as a Domra mandolin player. In 2012 she founded the „Musikstudio Domra“ and started her career as a committed private teacher for the instruments
domra, mandolin and piano as well as for music theory.
She has been guest conductor of the Münchner Mandolinen-Zirkel (Munich Mandolin Circle) since 2012.
Today Yulia Merten creates unusual concert programmes with which she enchants her audiences in Germany, Switzerland and Russia. Through the extravagant combination of instruments – such as domra and organ or domra and symphonic orchestra – she generates extraordinary sound worlds into which she draws her listeners with her passion for the Russian plucked instrument and all its possibilities.
One of the artist’s heart’s projects is the “Klassik für ALLE Kinder” („Classical Music for ALL Children“) programme which she has started: together with Oleksandra Zabolotna and Angelika Zobol, she brings young people into contact with classical music in a witty and very entertaining way, thus laying the foundations for the children’s enthusiasm for music which hopefully accompanies them throughout their lives.
