In her visits to the schools, community centers and hospitals of New York City, pianist Marina Radiushina became a believer.

A believer, that is, in the power of music to reach people, especially those who don’t encounter it very often.

“I really, really saw what a difference music can make,” she said. “And I thought that this actually is a niche that could be filled here in Miami.”

The Ukraine-born pianist is a fellow of the ACJW, a New York-based young musicians’ collective sponsored by Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute and the New York City Department of Education. The 20 Academy fellows concertize at places such as Skidmore College and the nightclub Le Poisson Rouge and are attached to public schools in the city, where they run interactive programs for students and also perform for them.

They also do outreach at some outlets where concerts are a rarity.

“My trio, the ensemble I’m playing with this year, we’re actually going to Rikers,” she said, referring to the city’s jail on Rikers Island. “It’s going to be an experience.”

The Academy, which was founded a few years back by Juilliard President Joseph Polisi and Carnegie Hall’s executive director Clive Gillinson selects 20 fellows for the program every two years. Each fellow is paid a $25,000 stipend and does 30 weeks of work annually for the academy, which is also designed to help its members craft thriving careers.

Radiushina, who teaches at an elementary school in Brooklyn as part of her fellowship, founded a nonprofit called Resonance Artists this past summer, whose mission is to bring the ACJW fellows and their activities to South Florida. A 2008 doctoral graduate of the University of Miami, Radiushina spends about half her time in Miami, where her fiancé still lives and works.

“I really liked the meaning of the word ‘resonance.’ I thought it signified what I was trying to do as a musician and as a person. I don’t remember the exact wording in the dictionary, but it means something like ‘two bodies vibrating in harmony,’” she said. “That’s what we do as artists. You start doing something you’re passionate about, and hopefully your art resonates in the community.”

Local audiences will be able to get a taste of the ACJW’s work Friday night in Resonance’s inaugural concert, a viola-and-piano recital in which Radiushina will be joined by violist Nathan Schram. The recital is set for 8 p.m. at the Miami Conservatory of Music.

The two will play the Brahms Viola (Clarinet) Sonata No. 1 (in F minor, Op. 120. No. 1) and the “Fairytale Pictures (Op. 113)” of Robert Schumann, as well as arrangements of the “Seven Popular Spanish Songs” of Manuel de Falla and “El mirar de la maja,” from the “Tonadillas” song cycle of Enrique Granados. Also on the program is “Fratres,” a popular work by the contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

“He is a phenomenal player, and we are just enjoying making music together,” Radiushina said of her work with Schram. “And that’s what it’s all about.”

Radiushina was born in Odessa, gave her first piano recital at 10, and by 16 was concertizing throughout the Ukraine, joining a local orchestra for a tour of some of the country’s cities with the Concerto No. 3 (in C minor, Op. 37) of Beethoven. She studied at the Odessa Conservatory, then came to UM, where she studied with Ivan Davis. After a couple years at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where her teacher was Sergei Babayan, she returned to Miami for her doctorate.

In addition to her work with ACJW, she’s putting together a new recital program and traveling to Russia in late February as one of four pianists in three performances of Stravinsky’s “Les Noces,” with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, one of the world’s leading conductors. It will be performed in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Paris.

“It’s absolutely phenomenal. I can’t believe it’s happening,” she said.

Radiushina said she hopes to make the Resonance Artists project into something bigger as time goes on, though the beginnings will be modest. She’s looking to partner with groups such as the Greater Miami Youth Symphony as she brings ACJW fellows south.

“The idea is to have a residency of five to seven days, where we would come and do all kinds of work here, going to hospitals, going to community centers, playing open spaces like Random Acts of Culture,” she said. “And it would culminate in a big concert.”

She’s already picked up a Miami-Dade County arts grant, and in March, she’ll bring a cellist and clarinetist down to join her for some trio chamber music. In November, there will be something even larger.

“I can’t go into details right now, but there is a potential sponsor who is going to sponsor us in a major way, hopefully, by November,” Radiushina said. “And then. depending on the amount of money we’re going to get, it’s going to be most likely five people, maybe more.”

All of which is a way of pursuing her chief aim here, which is to create an artistic life that matters.

“We do have a lot of music here, and it’s getting better and better. But this is something that I’m personally invested in. I believe in making a difference in people’s lives, particularly people who can’t necessarily listen to music, can’t afford it or don’t have time to think about it with the all that they have to think about in their lives.”

“If I can bring music to those people and make a tiny, tiny difference, put a tiny smile on their faces, it makes a difference for me in my life,” she said.

Admission to the concert at the Miami Conservatory of Music, 2911 Grand Ave., Coconut Grove, is by donation, and there will be a complimentary glass of wine for attendees. The concert begins at 8 p.m. in the conservatory’s recital hall.