ABOUT
Maria Kaushansky is a Russian-Canadian pianist residing in New York City. Currently, Maria regularly plays in various venues in NYC. She has performed at the esteemed Django Club and Roxy Hotel Bar, Knickerbocker Bar and Grill, Flatiron Room, Parker's NYC, Nublu, The Campbell Bar, Zero Bond, Yale Club, Penrose Bar and the Cell Theater, among other venues. She currently holds weekly residencies in NYC at CUT by Wolfgand Puck and Eventi Hotel in Chelsea. In 2021-2022, she held weekly residencies at NYC's historic Gotham Restaurant and Adalya Restaurant in Gramercy Park. She regularly performs with her jazz trio around NYC. She has had the great privilege of playing with Cameron Brown, Conrad Korsch, Dave Ambrosio, Tiger Okoshi, Anthony Pinciotti, Tony Jefferson and vocalists Lee Taylor and Marieme, among others.
In addition to performing, Maria is also very active in the ballet community, having worked as a ballet accompanist since 2006. She has played for ballet classes at The Juilliard School, School of American Ballet Theater, Steps on Broadway, Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive, Youth America Grand Prix (one of the most important ballet competitions in the world), Joffrey Ballet School, National Ballet of Canada and many others. Maria has played for masterclasses taught by Yuri Fateev (Mariinsky Ballet, Director), Alicia Graf Mack (Dean and Director, The Juilliard School), Gennadi Saveliev (YAGP Founder), Skylar Brandt (ABT, Principal Dancer), Calvin Royal III (ABT, Principal Dancer), Maxim Beloserkovsky, Cory Stearns (ABT, Principal Dancer), and Heather Ogden (National Ballet of Canada, Principal Dancer), among others.
She has taken part in jazz festivals at the Berklee Jazz Clinics (Perugia, Italy), Vermont Jazz Centre (US), Domaine Forget (Canada), Orford Academy (Canada), and studied at the acclaimed New York Jazz Workshop (NYC).
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As a classical pianist, Maria has performed in some of the most distinguished chamber music festivals in Europe, including the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival (Italy), Schlern International Music Festival (Italy) and the Alpen Kammer Music Festival (Austria).
Maria holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Toronto and an ARCT Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Maria also holds a Masters Degree in Translation from York University. She speaks English, Russian, French and Italian. She studied piano privately with Rena Amiralieva, Boris Lysenko and Frank Falco.
Testimonials from students
"We have worked with Maria for one year now and in that time I have watched my daughters (15yrs and 12yrs) become more and more passionate about playing the piano. They have learnt to listen to the music and play intuitively. Maria had been instrumental in developing their skills and has a flexible way of teaching that suits my girls." - Alison
"Highly recommend Maria; my daughter (6 yrs old) has been taking lessons with Maria and developed great interest in music, loves her classes!" - Elena
"Maria started teaching my daughter when she was 4 years old and in the past 2 years my daughter has developed a love for piano and music in general! Maria has a way with kids, not only do they love her but they also end up being engaged and motivated in class! I highly recommend her!" - Mira
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"Having played piano very young and always regretted to have stopped at the age of 16, I was delighted to see our daughter's interest to learn how to play for a couple of years. She finally started to learn at the age of 6 years old. Maria is such a nurturing teacher, always findings ways to keep the attention, making learning fun and integrating singing and other "new age" techniques I wish were used 30 years ago! Within 6 months, our child was able to play songs, and practice regularly while looking forward to the next lesson with Maria - could not have asked for more! - Sylvain
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"My brother and I--he is 81 and I'm 77-- have been taking piano lessons from Maria Kaushansky for 10 months. We both have had fairly extensive musical backgrounds, but have never had lessons from someone who teaches with such joy, patience, humor, and exceptional musicality, as Maria does. We feel lucky." - Nancy