The story of how Anna Demis created success and fame in Dubai and decided to uproot her life and create new success in New York City.
Anna Demis was born into a musically gifted family and started taking piano lessons from her mother when she was only three years old. She went on to graduate from the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music in Kyiv. Today, she is one of the most in-demand pianists in the Middle East.
Apart from being a professional pianist, Anna is also a multi-instrumentalist; she also plays the saxophone and drums. While also boasting a versatile repertoire of over 300 songs in a multitude of genres, including Arabic, classical, jazz, Disney, and wedding songs.
With humble beginnings, Anna started as a lobby pianist, in one of the most prestigious hotels in Dubai. Madinat Jumeirah is a five-star resort, developed by the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
This opened many doors for her, as many local Arabic ladies reached out for her to perform at weddings. She also started making waves when one sheikha was recommending Anna to her sisters and friends. As word of mouth grew about Anna, she quickly became sought after in not only Dubai but also had the opportunity to travel for performances. As Anna grew in popularity among the locals and VIPs, she also became a popular artist to perform at royal weddings.
As people became aware of Anna, she quickly grew from 4 000 followers to 60 000 on Instagram. Her online presence made her well-known to the locals, and people began approaching Anna in shopping malls. Most of the people who recognized her were some of her Instagram followers.
Anna has played in beautiful exclusive VIP venues, including the Atlantis The Palm, Emirates Palace, Armani Hotel Burj Khalifa, The Palace, and many more.
With all these doors opening, Anna was always booked, with private clients and event companies coming to her. Anna won the award for Entertainer of the Year 2019. At this stage, does her own arrangements of popular songs. Making every performance an experience with her music and her own sensual, emotional, and unique performing style.
Her success in Dubai came quickly, and she decided that it was time for a new adventure. Anna decided to move to New York in 2020 to be with her family, who had been trying to convince her to move there for years. Another reason Anna decided to move was that she wanted to be challenged. To restart where no one knew her and to establish herself and create a successful career in New York City.
Unfortunately, after her move lockdown hit giving Anna the time to catalog the arrangements of songs she’s collected over the years. Anna had learned most of the songs by ear and wanted to transcribe them for her fans. The sheet music was published online through a major distributor called Music Notes. Music Notes took Anna on as their signature artist giving her more exposure online.
The lockdown also gave Anna the opportunity to create connections with successful artists in New York. As restrictions began to be lifted, Anna started collaborating with the artists in her community.
The next step for Anna was to register with event companies and build her network. Soon she then had the opportunity to play at the Athletic Club, a luxury VIP sports club for members only. A dream come true for Anna, to also start the journey to establish herself as one of New York’s VIP pianists.
Anna’s biggest success from the start has been the brides who reach out to her to play at their weddings. Even now in New York, Anna has constantly been booked by excited brides. Anna has said, “I love playing at weddings. It’s still one of my favorite types of events, I just love seeing the happy eyes of the newlyweds. It makes me so happy to embellish the most important day of their lives”.
After her beautiful daughter’s birth in March, Anna has been scaling back to be a mother. Occasionally she still plays in VIP lounges, and she is still active on social media. She is most active on her Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channel.
Anna has been very resourceful and experimental with music, even teaching herself how to be a DJ and producing her own music.
With Anna more at home, she has the opportunity to work on the biggest dream of her life. To perform multi-instrumental songs. Incorporating the piano, saxophone, and drums into one performance.
One of Anna’s biggest inspirations to make her dream a reality is Tokio Myers, who Anna saw performing at the Dubai Film Festival in 2014 before he won British Got Talent in 2017.
Anna Demis is also a big influence on newer musicians, encouraging them to succeed as many reaches out to her privately about how much she has inspired them to move to Dubai, or if they are feeling stuck they ask her for advice.
Anna has created her successful career by making the most out of every opportunity she could find and was given. She is self-made and proves that with a lot of hard work, dedication, and perseverance, your dreams are achievable.
While she is becoming popular in New York, Anna won’t be stopping there, with plans and the skill to back them up Anna wants to conquer the USA and Europe. “Music is my life.” Demis said, smiling. “And to get to share it with the world is something I’ll cherish forever.”
