“I can’t exist without composing … I hear music in my head which gets so loud after a while that it forces me to bring it alive.” Armenian-German composer, pianist and producer Meredi has garnered millions of streams for her atmospheric, melodic music, inspired by the world around her, by her past and her family history, and by purely abstract ideas. Her compositions range from solo piano pieces to works for full orchestra, often featuring a closely woven blend of classical and electronic elements, as well as a sense of yearning that she associates with her Armenian heritage. She writes for film (under her full name, Ina Meredi Arakelian), theatre and dance, as well as for the concert hall.
Classically trained, she draws on her knowledge of composers from Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninov and Debussy to Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich and Max Richter, but also on such disparate sources as Armenian music and the Berlin club scene. Currently dividing her time between Berlin and LA, Meredi has played at a wide variety of venues. Recent highlights include performances at the Tigran Art Studio in Yerevan (August 2022); at Berlin’s Silent Green, for World Piano Day 2023; at Berlin Fashion Week (July 2023); and in the inaugural event of the Dronebath ambient series in LA’s Arts District (April 2024).
Meredi’s links with Deutsche Grammophon date back to 2022 when she wrote “White Flowers Take Their Bath” for Mari Samuelsen’s album LYS (“[it] makes its impact with simple, but passionate lyrical lines and undulating string accompaniment” – Bachtrack). Another track, Nachtigall (“Nightingale”) came out in time for this year’s World Sleep Day in March. Having since gone on to sign an exclusive agreement with the Yellow Label, in early June 2024 she will release two tracks – “Double Sky” and “Double Sky (Reprise)” – from her DG debut EP, Flourish, to be issued digitally on 28 June 2024.
Born in Berlin in 1992, Meredi, whose name means “melody” in Armenian, grew up surrounded by music – the pop hits of the day, film soundtracks, classical music (thanks to her German mother) and Armenian folk and pop (thanks to her Armenian father). There was an old Russian piano in her family home which she began playing at a very early age, starting lessons at six, and writing her first compositions at eight. “It’s like my meditation, which I need every day,” she says about playing the piano. “It’s my escape, my safe place. It’s an addiction.”
Meredi went to a performing arts high school, then studied composition at the Hanns Eisler Conservatory and Berlin University of the Arts before specialising in composition for film and media at the Munich Conservatory. Her first orchestral pieces were performed while she was still in her teens and she won a series of composition competitions, including several run by Jeunesses Musicales.
Keen to explore the world beyond her formal classical studies, she found inspiration in the Berlin techno scene and began producing her own music at the age of 21. Her solo piano debut album Stardust came out in 2020 and was chosen as one of BBC Music Magazine’s Top 10 post-classical albums to listen to (“a collection of atmospheric piano pieces, intimately performed and recorded. There’s an improvisatory feel to the music, and much of it feels heartfelt”). She followed this up with the ambient album Trance (2021) and Some Other Place (2022), a solo piano reimagining of Trance. Her film and TV projects include evocative scores for Find Fix Finish (2017), Flügel aus Beton (2021) and Wade in the Water (2023).
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