"Marina Kifferstein showcases a broad vocabulary, tuneful and noisy and often both simultaneously... Kifferstein’s bowing can be a polyphonic whirling hall of knives, a swarm of bees, a woody and guttural squall... sometimes unveiling rustic or bittersweet tunes" - Harmonic Series, album review of Open Improvisations
"My first encounter with TAK Ensemble quite took my breath away... This intrepid quintet... impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity — and, well, just a dash of IDGAF as they slay the thorniest material like it’s nothing... As titillating and irresistible a band as we have on the new music scene today."
- WQXR, Q2 Music
"These young, fearless players navigate Brook’s mechanized instruments and alternate tunings with
fluid grace and confidence." - The Boston Globe, listing TAK's album "Ecstatic Music" in the Top 10 Classical Albums of 2016
MARINA KIFFERSTEIN (she/they) is a violinist, composer, and educator based in NYC. Equally comfortable in major international venues and DIY spaces, Marina enjoys a multifaceted career with a focus on contemporary chamber music. They are a founding member of TAK ensemble and The Rhythm Method, and have performed across the US and internationally with these groups as well as with ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea, Wet Ink, the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, and others.
A specialist in new and experimental music, Marina has performed and commissioned hundreds of works by living composers. In recent years, they have collaborated closely with Tyshawn Sorey, Natacha Diels, Leah Asher, Ashkan Behzadi, Bethany Younge, Eric Wubbels, Meaghan Burke, Taylor Brook, Carrie Frey, Alec Goldfarb, Tod Machover, Lewis Nielson, Anaïs Maviel, and inti figgis-vizueta, among others. As a composer and improviser, Marina’s works have been performed across the U.S., South America, and Europe. Marina holds a curatorial and core performer position with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary division, on a team that oversees the Forward Festival, the Lucerne Festival Academy, and other Lucerne Festival affiliated projects. With TAK, The Rhythm Method, and as a soloist, she has released nine albums to critical acclaim, and is featured on several more with artistic collaborators including Brandon Lopez and gabby fluke-mogul, Alec Goldfarb, James Moore, Wet Ink, and Dai Fujikura.
International festival appearances include the Distat Terra Festival in Argentina, Donaueschingen Musiktage in Germany, the Sacrum Profanum festival in Poland, Festival Musiques démesurées in France, Musiikin Aika in Finland, the Delian Academy in Greece, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Bang on a Can Long Play festival, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in NYC, the Omaha One Festival in Nebraska, the Cluster Festival in Winnipeg, and others. Recent highlights include performances at the New York Philharmonic’s David Geffen Hall, the MIT Museum, the KKL Luzern, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
Marina holds violin faculty positions at the United Nations International School, Lucerne Festival Academy, the Composers Conference, the Lake George Music Festival Composer’s Institute, and Point Counterpoint. She has held university residency positions at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Bowling Green State University, Tulane, McGill, New York University, and the Zurich University of the Arts, among others, and with TAK Ensemble as Long-Term Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. Her writings have been published by the Wet Ink Archive, WQXR's Q2 Music, and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN.
Marina is currently a DMA candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center, where she studied with Mark Steinberg. She holds a Masters degree in contemporary performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was the recipient of a full scholarship in the studios of Curtis Macomber and Laurie Smukler. She received a BM in Violin Performance with Milan Vitek and a BA in English with a Creative Writing Concentration from Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2012, where she was the recipient of a Conservatory Dean's Talent Award and a John Frederick Oberlin Scholarship.
A specialist in new and experimental music, Marina has performed and commissioned hundreds of works by living composers. In recent years, they have collaborated closely with Tyshawn Sorey, Natacha Diels, Leah Asher, Ashkan Behzadi, Bethany Younge, Eric Wubbels, Meaghan Burke, Taylor Brook, Carrie Frey, Alec Goldfarb, Tod Machover, Lewis Nielson, Anaïs Maviel, and inti figgis-vizueta, among others. As a composer and improviser, Marina’s works have been performed across the U.S., South America, and Europe. Marina holds a curatorial and core performer position with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary division, on a team that oversees the Forward Festival, the Lucerne Festival Academy, and other Lucerne Festival affiliated projects. With TAK, The Rhythm Method, and as a soloist, she has released nine albums to critical acclaim, and is featured on several more with artistic collaborators including Brandon Lopez and gabby fluke-mogul, Alec Goldfarb, James Moore, Wet Ink, and Dai Fujikura.
International festival appearances include the Distat Terra Festival in Argentina, Donaueschingen Musiktage in Germany, the Sacrum Profanum festival in Poland, Festival Musiques démesurées in France, Musiikin Aika in Finland, the Delian Academy in Greece, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Bang on a Can Long Play festival, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in NYC, the Omaha One Festival in Nebraska, the Cluster Festival in Winnipeg, and others. Recent highlights include performances at the New York Philharmonic’s David Geffen Hall, the MIT Museum, the KKL Luzern, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
Marina holds violin faculty positions at the United Nations International School, Lucerne Festival Academy, the Composers Conference, the Lake George Music Festival Composer’s Institute, and Point Counterpoint. She has held university residency positions at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Bowling Green State University, Tulane, McGill, New York University, and the Zurich University of the Arts, among others, and with TAK Ensemble as Long-Term Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. Her writings have been published by the Wet Ink Archive, WQXR's Q2 Music, and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN.
Marina is currently a DMA candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center, where she studied with Mark Steinberg. She holds a Masters degree in contemporary performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was the recipient of a full scholarship in the studios of Curtis Macomber and Laurie Smukler. She received a BM in Violin Performance with Milan Vitek and a BA in English with a Creative Writing Concentration from Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2012, where she was the recipient of a Conservatory Dean's Talent Award and a John Frederick Oberlin Scholarship.