Nina Svetlanova N.B. She is homonym to "Nina leksandrovna Nikolayeva-vetlanova", who was the second wife of conductor Evgeny Svetlanov.(born in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, Ukraine Ukrainian SSR, January 23, 1932) is a Russian-American concert pianist and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. She became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

United States citizen in 1983. She has been a professor of piano at New York's

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

and Mannes College of Music since the late 1970s. Before her teaching career, she was known as a concert pianist and collaborative artist, being the main pianist to work with Armenian mezzo-soprano

Zara Dolukhanova Zara Aleksandrovna Dolukhanova ( hy, Զարուհի Դոլուխանյան, russian: Зара Александровна Долуханова; 15 March 1918 – 4 December 2007) was a Soviet Armenian mezzo-soprano who achieved fame performing on ...

. Svetlanova graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in the class of Heinrich Neuhaus, who she studied with from the age of 16 to 23 (1948–1955), during a seven-year period. Prior to that she had been a student of Grigory Kogan and Sofia Kogan at the Gnesin Music College, where she studied since the age of five (1937–1948). Upon graduation from Moscow Conservatory (class of 1955), she became ''Opera Konzertmeister'' (opera coach) in the famous

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, literally "Big Theater", p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈatər) is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and ope ...

. Later she became a pianist in the official roster of the Moscow Philharmonic Concert Association, called ''Moskonzert'', which was the main bureau responsible for all concerts in the USSR. As a ''Moskonzert'' pianist Svetlanova toured the world playing with instrumentalists and ensembles, and working closely with Zara Dolukhanova. She moved to New York City in 1975. Her most prominent students are Josu de Solaun Soto, Hyung-ki Joo, and Brian Zeger, artistic director of Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts.

References

External links

Official site
Living people American classical pianists American women classical pianists Russian classical pianists Russian women pianists Manhattan School of Music faculty 1932 births Soviet emigrants to the United States People with acquired American citizenship 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American women pianists 21st-century classical pianists Women music educators 21st-century American women pianists 21st-century American pianists American women academics {{US-classical-pianist-stub