Tatiana KasmanTatiana Kasman has been selected for induction into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame for 2021, one of 44 piano music educators who were selected.
Kasman is an adjunct piano ensemble, private piano and class piano instructor for the Department of Music in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s College of Arts and Sciences. She also maintains a private piano studio. Her students regularly win numerous local, state and regional competitions.
The educators, from all over the United States, were inducted Sept. 29-30 in New York. The names of the inductees are now displayed on the commemorative wall at the Steinway & Sons factory.
Steinway carries a more than 160-year tradition of the finest quality and reputation in the world of classical music and beyond. Steinway was an instrument of choice for the world’s greatest pianists Rachmaninoff, Horowitz and Rubinstein, Kasman says.
Steinway has been a part of Kasman’s life for a long time. Her husband is Steinway artist Yakov Kasman, DMA, renowned concert pianist and UAB Distinguished Professor of Piano. She teaches in the UAB Department of Music, the first All-Steinway School in Alabama, and works closely with the Alabama Piano Gallery, Birmingham’s local Steinway store, through the music teacher organization Birmingham Metro Music Forum.
“I’m very proud to be associated with Steinway, and it was a great honor for me to be recognized among some of the finest piano teachers in America, including such famous names as John Perry, Rebecca Penneys and others,” Kasman said. “I’m looking forward to continuing my enriching collaboration with Steinway.”
Kasman is a graduate of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia and has been teaching piano for more than 30 years. She has been active in Huntsville and Birmingham’s classical music scene and is passionate about music in the community, performing for music groups, lecturing, and organizing student recitals in various venues including nursing homes and for charities.
She co-directs with her husband her favorite event: the annual UAB Polyphonic Festival for pre-college students “Bach and Friends,” which brings together pre-college students and teachers —enthusiasts of polyphonic music — and promotes it as a necessary part of pre-college piano education. Kasman collaborated with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra performing demanding piano parts in several concerts, including Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” In 2019, she was named Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Music Teachers Association. Kasman is active in many music associations, including the Music Teachers National Association, Alabama Federation of Music Clubs and Birmingham Music Teachers Association.