TeachingWelcome to the teaching section of my website! Below I have summarized some information about my own education and training, as well as my philosophy toward and approach to teaching. I hope you find this information useful, and encourage you to email me any questions or requests for additional information you may have.
My Background
My musical training is rooted in the Moscow branch of the Russian School. Most of what I am able to share with my students I owe to my own great teachers. I began my music studies at the Gnesins Special Music School in Moscow, where I was taught by Ada Traub, a student of the legendary Konstantin Igumnov. Her passionate and tireless generosity, her expertise and her dedication to teaching were crucial to helping me build a solid foundation in my early training as a musician. I also received lessons from professors Lev Naumov and Leonid Brumberg, both disciples of Henrich Neuhaus. For me personally music became my whole raison d'être starting from the age of ten or eleven.
When I arrived in New York in 1977, I began studying with Professor Nadia Reisenberg, a descendant of the St. Petersburg piano school of Leonid Nikolaev. Mme. Reisenberg's playing had the most refined tone and noble phrasing; she could demonstrate anything on the piano with ease and elegance, pinpointing a problem at hand and giving a student a perfect lesson without extraneous words. I studied with her for five years while I was an undergraduate student at the Mannes College of Music and then at The Juilliard School. Later I had the opportunity to work with Professor Alexander Eydelman, a peer of Vladimir Horowitz at the Kiev Conservatory in the class of Felix Blumenfeld. During my doctoral studies at the Manhattan School of Music, my mentor was Arkady Aronov, an erudite musician of lucid and practical mind, who had taught at the Leningrad Conservatory. As a youngster I often observed lessons by other teachers, and from an early age I attended many concerts of great performers, among whom Sviatoslav Richter had the strongest influence on me.
My own pedagogical career began when Nadia Reisenberg appointed me as her unofficial teaching assistant at Mannes College in 1978. Following my graduation from Juilliard with Bachelor's and Master's degrees, and the receipt of my Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, I joined the Manhattan School as an associate faculty member at the college division and as a full faculty member at the pre-college division. I taught there for fourteen years, leaving in 2002 to accept a full-time teaching position at Roosevelt University's College of Performing Arts in Chicago, where I taught for four years. As an assistant professor of piano at Roosevelt, I provided individual instruction at both graduate and undergraduate levels, conducted piano ensemble classes and coached chamber music. During my teaching career, I have also taught at the Lucy Moses School in New York and had the opportunity to teach at the Special Music School of America, this country's first experiment in implementing the Russian system of professional training of musically gifted children. I am currently on the faculty of the Long Island Conservatory (SUNY).
Over the past twenty years I have participated in festivals and toured schools in the US and abroad as a performer, coach, master class clinician, adjudicator and lecturer. Among my students are prizewinners of national and international competitions who have performed at venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. I am forever indebted to the great teachers I was fortunate to work with for what they shared with me, and I take it upon myself to pass along the traditions and knowledge I acquired from them to my own students.
Philosophy
Teaching for me involves sharing my passion for music with my students. There was a strong spirituality in the cultural tradition in which I was raised, and that involved the notion of a complete dedication to the service of one's art. That is an ideal which I try to instill in my pupils.
I feel that music education should not simply impart knowledge but also communicate aesthetic and spiritual values. By raising my students' awareness of artistic standards, and also nourishing their work ethic, I guide them to their next personal level of achievement. I encourage students to be self-critical, while not losing sight of higher aspirations. This allows them to perfect their art and ultimately benefits them in areas that reach beyond music. I also feel that teaching produces optimal results when there is a creative dialogue between the teacher and student and when ideas are readily exchanged and tested.
Approach
I never apply a "one size fits all" approach to teaching. The key issue in one-on-one teaching is to focus on the particular needs of each individual student in order to further his or her progress. By diagnosing the student's strengths and weaknesses, and taking into account his or her background and talent, I devise strategies that reinforce strengths and assist in overcoming weaknesses. My ultimate goal is to inspire and to motivate my students so that they are eager to practice, to improve and to perfect their playing.
