From a Siberian prodigy
to the world's stages
Recognized as a child prodigy in Siberia, Maria Pisarenko began piano at five, gave her first solo recital at seven, and appeared as a concerto soloist with symphony orchestras by eight. After top honors at the First International Tchaikovsky Youth Competition in Moscow, she was invited to the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory — the heart of the legendary Russian school of piano.
She earned degrees in Piano Performance, Pedagogy and Collaborative Piano from the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — alongside a Ph.D. in Linguistics.
Maria is a bearer of the golden Russian piano school — the tradition of Heinrich Neuhaus, Alexander Goldenweiser, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Maria Yudina — carried to her directly through her own teachers. Her formative teacher at the Central Music School was Manana Kandelaki — a pupil of the legendary Tatiana Nikolayeva — and during those years she studied regularly with Ilya Klyachko, a pupil of Alexander Goldenweiser. Nikolayeva, too, was Goldenweiser's student, so Maria's 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 → her teachers → her.
At the Gnesins Academy she 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 she played for Nikolayeva herself, and has worked in lessons and masterclasses with legends of the school — Eliso Virsaladze, Vera Gornostayeva, Sergei Dorensky, Lev Naumov, Vladimir Krainev — with consultations at The Juilliard School.
