The Dubai pianist who’s making the world her stage

I was browsing Instagram to find the subject for our next episode of ‘Humans of UAE’ and that’s when Anna Demis, a pianist based in Dubai, caught my eye. She invited me to the Jetex VIP Terminal where she performed graciously to welcome the President of Chechnya to Dubai. Seal’s Kiss from a rose, Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years and John Legend’s All of Me were a few of the many songs she played that day, all with a personal touch. She kept smiling even as a few amused toddlers walked up to her and tried to play their own tunes on the piano. “That’s what I hope to achieve through my music – smiles, happiness and positivity,” she said as we sat down later for an on-camera interview.

Her story stretches back to Ukraine in the 1980s when the Chernobyl disaster forced her family to relocate to the south of Ukraine. Born to eminent pianists, she grew up in a musical family in Nikolaev and in 2013, she moved to the UAE to hit the ground running as a professional pianist. Her parents now live in Manhattan, New York, but Anna says she is in love with Dubai where she realised her dream of becoming a globe-trotting pianist.

The video garnered about 10,000 views on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and reached to more than 28,000 netizens. “She’s wonderful,” wrote a YouTube user who goes by the name “bb wisdom”. Com Taur wrote, “Wow! She’s so sweet and innocent. I hope she soon becomes the world’s best pianist.”

And it’s not just piano. The expat wears many feathers in her cap. She recently walked the ramp at Arab Fashion Week in Dubai wearing a dress designed by herself. Her next goal is to perform at big events as a DJ, saxophonist and percussionist, all at once. When she’s not working, you’d find her cooking, working out, painting or reading.