Danae Dörken plays the piano to express herself, to vent her feelings. The 29-year-old German/Greek has a very close relationship with the instrument – as well as having a strong bond with her younger sister Kiveli. They both enrapture their audiences with their perfect symbiosis, as proven by numerous joint performances. Exceptional talent and unwavering passion have defined Danae Dörken's musical career ever since her childhood and have already put her on the world's big stages. The artist considers her music a means to restore balance and grant her some peace and quiet on the often stressful touring treadmill.

How would you normally create music and connect with your audience?

I am a German/Greek pianist who loves to connect people of all cultural backgrounds through the universal language of music. Already combining two very different cultures within myself, I believe that music is one of the most powerful ways to unite people all over the world and to show how great diversity is for everyone. For me, the best musical moments of my life have been the ones in which I could in some way feel every person in the audience, as well as every musician on stage, melt into one great musical work. It is the combination of everyone's life experience in the room that creates the music in that moment.

Technology and social networks allow a wide audience to be reached with whom the artist can interact. How has your experience been collaborating with the #YamahaLiveFromHome initiative?

It has been really wonderful to be part of the #YamahaLiveFromHome initiative. It gives us musicians the possibility to connect with our audiences who, right now, are so far away from us. As a musician, I truly long for and miss this exchange that happens between the audience and the artist on stage and, since this is not possible right now, I am thrilled to at least be able to share my music with everyone through this project and maybe even reach people living far away who wouldn't otherwise have made it to a concert.

What's the role of music in your life?

Music plays a very central role in my life. It is my way of expressing my innermost emotions, my fears, my hopes and all my thoughts. I love to take the listener on a journey because I believe that music has the power to transform someone, meaning that when you leave a concert hall, you are not exactly the same person as the one who entered.

Thanks to the Internet, today we have an unlimited choice of videos, music and educational material. Sometimes we face the so called "paradox of choice", making it difficult to focus and select want we want to study, listen to and play. What would you recommend to music lovers to improve their knowledge?

I think that the way that music consumption on the Internet works today is much more "passive" than it used to be. We get recommendations to click on and we get suggested automated playlists that supposedly match our taste in music. Although this can be a great way to discover new artists and music that we wouldn't otherwise have listened to, I would definitely recommend sometimes also actively deciding what we want to listen to and then actually taking the time to really enjoy it – just as we would when buying a ticket to see a specific artist in concert and then enjoying that concert with full focus.

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#YamahaLiveFromHome is giving artists the platform to connect with their so dearly missed audiences all around the world.