about dariya

   Dariya Maminova (b. 1988, Saint Petersburg) is a versatile composer, pianist, singer, performer, and painter based in Cologne, Germany. Her creative work spans a broad spectrum of musical genres, including experimental instrumental and electronic music, improvisation, musical theater, and pop music. In 2012, she co-founded the MAMI NOVA project with her sister, Malika Maminova (percussion), where she serves as both performer and composer.

    Dariya has received several notable awards for her work in contemporary music. In 2024, she received the German Music Author Award in the “Newcomers” category for contemporary music. She was also selected by the Deutsche Musikrat Podium-Gegenwart in 2022 to record a portrait album, and in 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Bernd-Alois-Zimmermann Prize by the city of Cologne. Dariya is currently serving as Composer-in-Residence at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden for the 2024/2025 season.

    Her passion for vocal music is evident in her extensive body of work, which includes choral pieces, ensemble works with voice, chamber operas, and songs. Dariya is particularly fascinated by the fusion of experimental contemporary music with pop genres and music from various traditions and cultures. Since 2013, she has been an instructor in the interdisciplinary educational project Framewalk by the Kabawil organization in Düsseldorf, where she has collaborated as a composer and performer with artists from Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa, and Namibia. She continues to explore this cross-genre synthesis in her solo project, Dariya's Songs.

    Dariya Maminova studied piano and composition at the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory and further honed her skills at the Detmold Academy of Music with Prof. Fabien Lévy, and the Academy of Music and Dance in Cologne, where she studied composition with Prof. Johannes Schöllhorn, Prof. Brigitta Muntendorf, and Prof. Michael Beil.