Dina K. Kirnarskaya

Professor Dina Kirnarskaya has been working at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music since her graduation fr om Ph.D. studies in 1987. She has been Vice-Rector of the Academy since November 2003 until now changing the direction of her vice-rectorate from Creative Work and Research to Public Relations for which she is responsible at the moment. Her interest in psychology of music and music perception triggered her two Ph.D. degrees – first in Musicology at the Moscow Conservatory (1998) and the second at the Psychology Department of St.Petersburg University (2006). She has won Fulbright Grant twice and as a Visiting Professor continued her research at Harvard University and Boston College as well as in London University due to the grant of British Council. Dina Kirnarskaya’s results were published by Oxford University Press in her book «The Natural Musician: on Abilities, Giftedness and Talent» and in the paper written together with her co-author Ellen Winner in Psychomusicology «Musical Abilities in a New Key: Exploring the Expressive Ear for Music». 

Dina Kirnarskaya participated in lots of international conferences wh ere various aspects of music education were discussed. The most meaningful among them are Arts in Education UNESCO Congress in Seoul (2010), Developmental Psychology Conference in Bergen, Norway (2011), Psychology Conference in Osaka (2013) and ISME Conferences in Glasgow (2016) and Baku (2018). Dina Kirnarskaya is the founder of the former Production Faculty and the UNESCO department of Musical Mastery and Contemporary Performing Arts at the Gnesin Academy - the only one that exists in the Russian higher education system.

Besides musical abilities and talent Dina Kirnarskaya is interested in increasing the popularity of classical music. She is practicing the so-called «inter-art method» to help people better understand academic music through its various connections with fine arts and literature of the time. The example of this method is her book «Classical Music for Everyone» with a preface by Vladimir Ashkenazy and recommendations by Vladimir Spivakov and Gidon Kremer. The book has been re-published in 2020. 

Since mid-90-s Dina Kirnarskaya has also been a journalist and musical critic. She is a frequent guest and expert on different TV channels and radio-stations of national significance such as Perviy Channel, Russia-1, Culture and others.