Pianist Svetlana Smolina, a native of Nizhny-Novgorod, Russia, began her keyboard studies with Natalia Fish at the Balakirev Music College. By the time she graduated in 1995, Ms. Smolina had already won several national and international piano competitions, performed concertos with the Nizhny Novgorod Symphony, participated at the Sakharov International Music Festival, given recitals in Italy, Japan and Denmark and was the recipient of the New Names scholarship project. Following her acclaimed surprise appearance at the White Nights Festival in June 1995, she was invited to study with famed pianist Alexander Toradze at his South Bend piano studio at Indiana University.
From 1998 through 2000, additional studies followed with Eugene and Olga Mogilevsky at the Brussels Royal Conservatory in Belgium. Ms. Smolina's other festival appearances include the Hollywood Bowl Festival (Los Angeles); Mikkeli Festival (Finland); Rotterdam Philips Gergiev Festival (Holland); Edinburgh Festival (with a live BBC broadcast); Ravinia Festival Rising Stars (Chicago); Settimane Musicali di Stresa (Italy); and the New Jersey Symphony's Rachmaninoff Festival. She has performed solo and chamber music at Carnegie Hall, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London), Mariinsky 3 Concert Hall, Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory Hall, Teatro Lyrico (Milano), Cliburn Concert Series (Fort Worth, TX) and the Kravis Center (Palm Beach, FL). In September 2005 her CD recording of Stravinsky's Les Noces with Valery Gergiev was released to critical acclaim on the Decca/Philips label.
In addition to her solo accomplishments, Svetlana Smolina and her duo partner Maxim Mogilevsky are winners of the prestigious Murray Dranoff International Duo Piano Competition in Miami, Florida. They also received two special prizes: the Audience Favorite Prize and the Casadesus Prize for the best interpretation of the Casadesus Duo Piano Concerto. The prize also included an appearance with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, recitals at the University of Miami and numerous engagements in Europe and the United States.
In the summer of 2011 Svetlana appears in the iPalpiti Festival of International Laureates in Los Angeles, making her debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the iPalpiti Orchestra (Eduard Schmieder, conductor) and in solo and chamber concerts. She also serves on the piano faculty of the Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF) and at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria.
Svetlana Smolina received her B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and her M.M. from Bowling Green State University. In 2008, Ms Smolina received her Doctorate in Piano Performance at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Arthur Greene.
Website: www.ssmolina.com