Nashville International Piano Competition
Judges
Education
Born in Kazan, Russia, into a family of musicians, Daria Rabotkina gave her first solo recital at the age of ten. Her education started at the Specialized Music School under the guidance of her parents, and Nora Kazatchkova. Later, it continued in Kazan State Conservatory and Mannes College of Music in New York City under the tutelage of Vladimir Feltsman. In addition, she holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Natalya Antonova.
Performances
Concerto highlights include San Francisco and New World symphonies, Kirov (Mariinsky) Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Hudson Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Concepción and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. Rabotkina has collaborated with Michael Tilson Thomas, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Feltsman, Julian Kuerti, JoAnn Falletta, Benjamin Shwartz, and Giancarlo Guerrero. As a soloist, she has given recitals at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, Ravinia’s Rising Stars, and Dame Myra Hess in Chicago. Her appearances abroad include Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, France, Mexico and Japan.
Competitions and Festivals
Winner of the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Rabotkina received top prizes at several international competitions and participated in Russia’s White Nights, Finland’s Kuhmo, and Copenhagen’s Summer festivals. In the United States, Rabotkina has appeared at the Rockport Chamber Music, International Keyboard Institute, PianoSummer at New Paltz, and San Francisco International Piano festivals.
Recordings
Her first three recordings were done with CAG Records as part of the Victor Elmaleh Collection. The debut recording features the Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata and Prokofiev’s Ten Pieces from “Romeo and Juliet”. Her second CD contains Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Schubert’s Moments Musicaux. Rabotkina’s third project involved live recording of three concerti. The latest CD (MSR Classics) with humoresques by Dvořák, Reger, Rachmaninov and Schumann was released to critical acclaim in 2018.
Teaching
Rabotkina will join the piano faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music in the fall of 2024 where she will also serve as the Director of piano studies at the Academy. Previously, she presented masterclasses, private lessons and lectures at the Kazan State Conservatory. Passionate about early piano education, Rabotkina founded the FunKey Piano Project at Texas State in 2018, where she was an Associate Professor of Piano (2016-2024).
Yakov Kasman’s debut in America in 1997 as Silver Medalist in the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth was the culmination of several competition triumphs and tours in Europe and the Middle East, including prizes at the 1991 Valentino Bucchi Competition in Rome, the 1991 London World Piano Competition, the 1992 Artur Rubinstein International Competition in Tel Aviv, and the 1995 International Prokofiev Competition at St. Petersburg.
Since his American debut, he has given concerts in the United States, South America, Europe, Russia and Asia, including recitals in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Paul, Atlanta, and Birmingham. He has appeared as soloist with more than seventy orchestras including the Buffalo, Oregon, Pacific, Syracuse, Memphis, Miami, Ft. Worth, Nashville and Alabama symphonies, Athens State Orchestra, the Orchestre de Lille and Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier in France, the Singapore Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Orquestra Simfonica de Baleares (Spain), Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea) and the Moscow Philharmonia Orchestra.
Kasman has fifteen studio CD recordings on the Calliope label. His two CD set of the recordings of the complete sonatas of Prokofiev was awarded the “Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Academie du Disque” in France in 1996. Other CDs include solo works by Haydn, Scriabin, Stravinsky, and Rachmaninov. The International Piano Quarterly magazine recommended his CD of Moussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” as one of 14 equally ranked best in a survey of recordings over the past 75 years. His recording of Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1, and Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and Strings, released in 2000, received the “Choc du monde de la musique” award in France, is rated highest for artistry and sound quality by Classics Today.com, and referred to as “superlative” in the American Record Guide. He has also recorded two CDs with Harmonia Mundi, the most recent one with the Pacific Symphony includes Piano Concerto No. 2 by Lukas Foss, released in 2001. In 2003 he completed a recording of all of the Scriabin piano sonatas and in 2004 recorded an All-Tchaikovsky CD featuring “The Seasons” and Grand Sonata in G-Major (Rated 10/10 by ClassicsTodayFrance.com in December 2005). In 2007 he completed a four-CD set of the chamber music of Shostakovich with the Talich Quartet on the Calliope label.
Kasman is also active as a teacher and adjudicator. He was a jury member of the Busoni International Piano Competition (Bolzano), International Piano Competition in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz (Kyiv), the Corpus Christi International Competition, "Merzlyakovka invites friends" All-Russian Piano Competition in Moscow, Kalinnikov International Piano Competition in Orel to name a few. He has been guest artist and faculty at the Piano Texas International Academy and Festival (Fort Worth), the International Summer Music Academy in Kyiv, the Busan International Music Academy at Dong Eui University, IKIF in New York, the Viivace Festival in Wilmington, NC, and many others.
Born in the city of Orel, near Moscow, Yakov Kasman began his piano studies at the age of five. A graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and previously a professor of piano at the Music College of the Conservatory, he is now the Distinguished Professor of Piano and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. His students are winners of regional, national and international competitions.
Elisabeth Pridonoff is internationally known as a pianist and pedagogue and for over three decades was on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Her students have won many prestigious awards and hold positions at institutions all over the world. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she earned MM degrees in piano with Adele Marcus and Sasha Gorodnitzski and in voice with Hans Heinz and Anna Kaskas.
She was first-place winner of national and international competitions including the Midland-Odessa, Shreveport, El Paso and Oklahoma City Symphony and as a soloist has performed with the Nashville Symphony, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the Shreveport Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Boise Philharmonic, the Illinois Philharmonic, and Graz Festival. She has given performances and master classes all over the world including the United States at Tully and Merkin Halls in New York, Boston (Baltic Series), the Kennedy Center, Baltimore, Toronto Town Hall, at the Moscow Conservatory, Siena, Rome (by invitation from the U.S. Ambassador), Munich, London, Monterrey (Mexico) at the Sociedad Artistica Technologicao and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Canada, Italy, Spain, Belgium, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Other appearances include NPR's The Sunday Show and St. Paul Sunday with Bill McGlaughlin, the nationally televised CBS Sunday Morning and festival appearances at Chautauqua, San Luis Obispo Mozart, Arcady, Western Arts, Lyric Arts, Shreveport, and Graz. She has adjudicated national and international piano competitions including the Kapell, Virginia Waring, Chicago Symphony, Wideman, and World Piano.
Her students have won prizes in the Second International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Kiev, Ukraine (First), Missouri Southern International (first, third, and finalist): Ninth Biennial American Pianists Association National Piano Fellowship Audition (Fellowship Award); Shreveport Wideman (first, second); Midland-Odessa (first); Young Keyboard Artists Association (two seconds); Ibla (Italy) Grand Prize International Piano Competition (third); and the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition (second). Her international career also includes performances as part of the Pridonoff Duo with her husband Eugene Pridonoff who were interviewed for a cover story (with cover photo) in Clavier Magazine and later published in China’s Piano Artistry magazine. Formerly Co-Artistic Director of the Prague International Piano Institute she has served on the faculties of International Piano Week of Belgium, the Barcelona Festival, and the Amalfi Festival. She continues to teach at the Brevard Music Festival and now serves as Co-Artistic Director of the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Piano Performance (IIASPP), LLC.
With her leadership roles as President of the Wyoming School Music Association, and positions on the Board of Directors of Chamber Music Cincinnati, the Matinee Musical Club of Cincinnati, Wyoming Fine Arts Center, and the Cincinnati School House Symphony, Elisabeth Pridonoff continues to nurture the cultivation of artistry with purpose internationally through the IIASPP.
Elisabeth Pridonoff is an Emeritus Professor of Piano at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music and is currently residing in Arizona.
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