Valeri Brainin (born 27 January 1948) is a Russian/German musicologist, music manager, composer, and poet. Born in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, in the family of Austrian poet and translator, political émigré Boris Brainin (Sepp Österreicher), who belonged to the well-known Viennese Brainin family. He lives at the moment both in Hanover, Germany, and in Moscow. Brainin is of Jewish descent.

Positions

President (from 2004) of the Russian Federation Society for Music Education (RussSME) – National Affiliate of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), a member of UNESCO.

Head of the Laboratory of New Technologies in Music Education, Moscow State Pedagogical University.

Art Director of Classica Nova International Music Competition.

Art Director of the net of Brainin Music Schools (Brainin-Musikschulen), Germany.
 
He has directed seminars/master courses at conservatoires and universities in Austria, Columbia, Germany, Italy, Russia, USA, etc. In addition he offered weekly music talks on Radio Liberty from Munich and Prague, and has literary, critical and scientific musical publications in Russian, German, English, and Italian.

Music activities 

Brainin is a full Member of the International Teacher's Training Academy of Science (Moscow), and of other scientific/pedagogical societies, he studied mathematics, linguistics, musical pedagogics, music theory and composition. He has had works performed in the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, and taught at Moscow's Gnessin Music School for specially gifted children. The Brainin Teaching Method for ‘development of musical intelligence in children’ became a standard part of the curriculum. He is also a noted piano teacher for children. Among his former students there are some prize-winers of national and international competitions.

Literary activities 

Russian poet (also known as Valeri (Willi) Brainin-Passek), a pupil of Arseny Tarkovsky, a member (1985-1990) of Moscow Club „Poezia“ together with Yury Arabov, Jewgenij Bunimovitch, Mikhail Epstein, Alexandr Eremenko, Sergej Gandlevskij, Nina Iskrenko, Timur Kibirov, Alexei Parshchikov, Dmitri Prigov, Lev Rubinstein, a. o. 
Most essential poetry publications: 
Russian: 
literary magazines "Znamya" (Moscow), "Novy Mir" (Moscow), "Arion" (Moscow), "Ogonyok" (Moscow), "Grani" (Frankfurt-am-Main), "Dvadtsat dva" (Jerusalem), "Kreshchatik" (Kiev), anthologies "Verses of the Century" (Moscow, compiled by Yevgeny Yevtushenko) and "Verses of the Century-2" (Moscow).
English: 
literary magazine "Partisan Review" (Boston).

Well-known relatives 

 Elisabeth Brainin (1949), Austrian psychoanalyst and scientific writer
 Fritz Brainin (1913-1992), Austrian/American poet
 Harald Brainin (1923-2006), Austrian poet and writer
 Max Brainin (1909-2002), Austrian/American commercial graphic artist and violinist
 Norbert Brainin (1923–2005), Austrian/British violinist, the founder of Amadeus Quartet
 Reuben Brainin (1862–1939), Hebrew publicist, biographer and public figure
See also Brainin.

Sources 

1948 births
Living people
German poets
Jewish German musicians
Jewish German writers
Jewish musicians
Musicologists
Russian Jews
Russian musicians
Russian poets
Soviet Jews