Faculty - Piano

RUFINA GORIN
Director
MA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, Nezin Gogol Music Teachers' Training Institute, Ukraine. B.A. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, Music College, Kiev, Ukraine. Currently, Ms. Gorin is a faculty member at National Guild Performance Auditions, an adjudicator of CM and National Guild Performance Auditions, Sound of Music Festival, U.S. Open Piano Competition, and others. Mrs. Gorin has been an active member of the Music Teachers' Association of California (MTAC) since 1981, serving on the Board of Palo Alto Branch since 1988 and as branch president 1993-1995. She was elected to the State Board of MTAC in 1996 and served for four years, completing her tenure there as a Vice President. Previously, Ms. Gorin was piano faculty chair and piano teacher at Special Children's Music School, Kiev, Ukraine; Accompanist for Children's Ballet Group, Kiev Ballet Company, Ukraine; and a piano teacher at Junior Music Academy and Conejo Valley Conservatory, Thousand Oaks, CA.

SOFIA KABANSKAYA
MA in Piano Pedagogy and Accompaniment, Yereven Conservatory of Music, Armenia. BA in Music Education, Music College, Dniepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Ms. Kabanskaya has been an accredited piano teacher and accompanist in schools in Ukraine and Russia for many years, including the Music School of Arts, Mauripol, Ukraine, the Tomsk Music College in Russia and the Music College of Dnieprodzershinsk, Ukraine. Currently, she is an accompanist for voice and ballet classes in San Francisco and performs chamber music in the Bay Area.

LYUDMILA KARPOVSKAYA
BA The Rimsky Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory Studio, Russia. M.S. The Institute of Motion Picture Engineering, St. Petersburg, Russia. Ms. Karpovskaya currently is a piano teacher and an accompanist for instruments and voice at GSM. Previously, she was a film technologist at St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio. Ms. Karpovskaya has performed in concerts as a piano soloist at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and the Pushkin Museum.

TATYANA KOLUBELOVA
BA, Music College of Moscow, Russia. Currently, Ms. Kolubelova teaches piano at GSM. Previously, Ms. Kolubelova taught piano at the Children Music School in Moscow, Russia.

MARINA MADOYAN
MA in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy, Yerevan Conservatory of Music, Armenia. BA in Music Education, Music College, Yerevan, Armenia. Ms. Madoyan has been an accredited piano teacher and accompanist in schools in Armenia and Israel for last 19 years. Currently, she is teaching piano at GSM, Mountain View, California.

NATALIA PRESSMAN
MA in Music and Piano Performance, Manuel de Falla High Conservatory of Music, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mrs. Pressman continued her piano studies in Europe with well-known master pianists. She has been teaching piano, theory, harmony and music history for the last 13 years in many of the music schools in Buenos Aires and Barcelona where she was also the Piano Department Director of the Eulália School. She also worked as piano accompanist for the National Conservatory of Argentina and other conservatories. She had performed in important halls of Argentina and Europe as a piano soloist and chamber musician. Currently, she join the faculty of the Gorin School of Music and working as accompanist at the Ballet San Jose.

NAMIK SULTANOV
Ph.D., Moscow State Conservatory, Russia. BA in Piano Performance, Moscow State Conservatory. After debut performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto at the age of thirteen, Dr. Sultanov was recommended by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan to enter the Central Music School of Moscow State Conservatory. Dr. Sultanov has taught piano at Azerbaijan State Conservatory, Baku, Azerbaijan; held the position as a Visiting Associate Professor in Bilkent University, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Ankara, Turkey, where he also served as a Vice Dean, Acting Dean, and the Chairman of the Piano Studies Department at Bilkent University. Dr. Sultanov has performed in solo, chamber and concerto recitals throughout the [former] USSR, as well as Mexico and Turkey, was selected to premier the performances of Azerbaijani composers, and has recorded a CD in Switzerland and USA. Dr. Sultanov has published many papers devoted to different problems of piano performance. During his teaching years in Azerbaijan and USA, Dr. Sultanov has nurtured many students who have become winners and laureates in regional, national and international piano competitions. Dr. Sultanov has been invited to serve on juries for national and international piano competitions and in sought of master classes. He gives recitals in San Francisco Bay Area.