Teaches in Southern California

From Manhattan Beach, California

Plays Piano, and Songwriting

About

Milaena Martínez is a pianist, arranger, songwriter, composer, and visual artist from Los Angeles, California. She is a recipient of the Steinway Junior Artist Award, the Steinway Society Recognition Award, and the Woody Herman Jazz Award with experience in performing several musical styles. Milaena has frequently performed as a soloist with orchestras, including Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the USC Concerto Chamber Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New Valley Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles, and Mendelssohn’s Capriccio Brillant for Piano and Orchestra with the Coachella Valley Symphony. Milaena performed, recorded, arranged, and wrote popular music as a member of the Gritty and Pink platform in Los Angeles and as a student in the USC Popular Music department, led by Patrice Rushen. She has also performed as a keyboardist in the USC Thornton Symphony and in a multitude of masterclasses led by faculty from universities and conservatories within the United States. Milaena has premiered and recorded original works of various composers throughout the country. She performed full-length recitals annually in Los Angeles and gave lecture-recitals for the students of K-12 schools in the Coachella Valley for a decade, sponsored by the Steinway Society of Riverside County. As a young pianist, Milaena was an opening soloist for the Coachella Valley Symphony in 2007 and a featured artist in a documentary titled “Steinway Virtuosos” that premiered at the Palm Springs Art Museum in 2009. She is a winner of the Boston Conservatory Piano Honors Competition of 2023 as well as a five-time winner of the Steinway Society of Riverside County Piano Competition and the first-prize winner of the 2009 MTAC Los Angeles Branch Sonata Competition. She is also a featured vocalist on an educational CD for the Ventura County School District. Milaena is a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music and a former pupil of Dr. Stewart Gordon, from whom she received guidance for thirteen years. She currently studies at the Boston Conservatory under the instruction of Dr. Jonathan Bass and enjoys collaborating with fellow musicians.