Dr. Maria "Masha" Pisarenko

🎼 Lineage — a documented line to Liszt

I am a bearer of the golden Russian piano school — the tradition of Heinrich Neuhaus, Alexander Goldenweiser, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Maria Yudina — carried to me directly through my own teachers. My formative teacher at the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory was Manana Kandelaki — a pupil of the legendary Tatiana Nikolayeva, who brought her to teach at the school. During those same years I studied regularly with Ilya Klyachko, the renowned Moscow Conservatory professor and a pupil of Alexander Goldenweiser. Nikolayeva, too, was Goldenweiser's student — so my training descends to him along two independent lines. And Goldenweiser studied with Alexander Siloti, a pupil of Franz Liszt himself. A direct, documented teaching line: Liszt → Siloti → Goldenweiser → Klyachko & Nikolayeva → my teachers → me.

The first commandment of that golden generation, passed on to me in those lessons: musicians play with their ears first — you must hear it before you can play it. It is the heart of how I teach today.

At the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music I studied with Dr. Lina Bulatova, Dr. Vera Nossina and professor Yuri Ponizovkin — a pupil of the legendary Maria Yudina and a noted Rachmaninoff scholar. As a student at the Central Music School I played for Tatiana Nikolayeva herself: before important examinations and performances, my teacher — Nikolayeva's own pupil — arranged for me to take lessons with her. I've worked in lessons and masterclasses with legends of the school — Tatiana Nikolayeva, Eliso Virsaladze, Vera Gornostayeva, Sergei Dorensky, Lev Naumov, Vladimir Krainev — and consulted with faculty of The Juilliard School (Seymour Lipkin, Martin Canin, Matti Raekallio).