Russian pianist Marina Yakhlakova was born in 1991 in Moscow. She began playing the piano at the age of 5 under 
the guidance of Vitaly Mishchenko and in 2001 entered into the Moscow Gnessin School of Music for Gifted Children where she graduated under Natalia Zdobnova.

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In 2009, Marina was accepted to study at the Moscow State Conservatory where she has spent the past four years working with internationally renowned pianist, Alexander Strukov.  During this time, she became a laureate of the Sixth Festival of Romantic Music for Young Musicians and won the Marina Bondarenko Memorial Award at Tel-Hai in Israel. 

In 2011, Marina was the first prizewinner of the prestigious, International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Weimar and Bayreuth, Germany. In addition, she received the Special Award for the best interpretation of a work by Franz Liszt. 

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Since winning, Marina has been in demand internationally demonstrating an unusually large concerto repertoire 
for her age. She has toured Austria, Germany, Holland, Israel, Canada, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Sweden. 

Marina recently signed an exclusive record deal with the Master Performers record label, the first CD in collaboration with American piano manufacturer, Mason & Hamlin featuring Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Tchaikovsky/Pletnev’s Nutcracker Suite which has become one of her signature works and an audience favourite. Her follow-up album, “The Art of the Impromptu” will be released in 2014. Marina is also set to record with American Cellist, Julian Schwarz. 

In April 2014, Marina will begin an extensive tour of Australasia, starting in Brisbane, Australia with a performances of the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 under the baton of Maestro Vassilis Christopoulos and the Queensland  Symphony Orchestra.