LIZA STEPANOVA
pianist, SongFest alumna ‘09, ‘10, SongFest faculty

SongFest Faculty member Liza Stepanova is a long time advocate for art song, a soulful artist, and a detailed pedagogue. Her important work on Recovered Voices (in collaboration with James Conlon and the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at The Colburn School and the OREL Foundation) which features composers whose lives, work, and reputations suffered as a consequence of the cataclysms brought on by the Nazi regime in mid-20th century Europe, is just one of the many meaningful projects to which she has been lending her expertise. We are deeply grateful for her many contributions and for her message here today.

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Weill and Zankel recital halls at Carnegie Hall; Alice Tully, Merkin, David Geffen, and Steinway halls in New York City and at the Kennedy Center. She has appeared as a soloist with conductors James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan and live on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and WETA Washington. 

2019-2020 concert highlights include invitations to the Bowdoin Music Festival and Prague Piano Festival, solo recitals at USF Steinway Piano Series and East Carolina University Piano Series, and chamber music tours with the Lysander Piano Trio, winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, in Canada, Mexico, and across the US at Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Crescent City Festival in New Orleans, Norton Museum in Palm Beach, and more. Stepanova is one of the founders of the Chamber Music Athens festival in Georgia and has been actively involved in performance, teaching and administration of the annual event. At the 2020 CMA, she will give the world premiere of a new substantial chamber music work by Lowell Liebermann, which was commissioned especially for her with her ensemble, the Yargo Trio. 

Stepanova’s debut solo album Tones & Colors: Music and Visual Art (CAG Records, 2018), recorded with Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, was featured on Performance Today, in the BBC Music Magazine, and in recital at New York City’s National Sawdust. Her most recent project E Pluribus Unum (Navona Records, 2020) features piano music by contemporary immigrant composers, including three world-premiere recordings. Previous recordings with her numerous ensembles and partners include The Garden: Vocal Chamber Music by Tom Cipullo (Albany Records, 2018), praised by the American Record Guide for the “excellent performances … by the composer’s ‘dream team of interpreters’” and Lysander Piano Trio’s After A Dream (CAG Records, 2014), lauded by The New York Times for its “polished and spirited interpretations.”

Stepanova’s debut solo album Tones & Colors: Music and Visual Art (CAG Records, 2018), recorded with Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, was featured on Performance Today, in the BBC Music Magazine, and in recital at New York City’s National Sawdust. Her most recent project E Pluribus Unum (Navona Records, 2020) features piano music by contemporary immigrant composers, including three world-premiere recordings. Previous recordings with her numerous ensembles and partners include The Garden: Vocal Chamber Music by Tom Cipullo (Albany Records, 2018), praised by the American Record Guide for the “excellent performances … by the composer’s ‘dream team of interpreters’” and Lysander Piano Trio’s After A Dream (CAG Records, 2014), lauded by The New York Times for its “polished and spirited interpretations.”

Find out more about Liza’s projects here!

Liza, with violinist Itamar Zorman and cellist Michael Katz founded the award winning Lysander Trio.

Liza’s albums E PLURIS UNUM and Tones & Colors are available for purchase and download on all major streaming platforms.

How Fair This Spot - Resources for Studying & Performing Russian Romances, Liza’s lecture on Russian song from our 2020 Auf den Airwaves zu Singen.

Examples of Liza’s beautiful work in programming are below:

• The Breaking of Nations, a commemorative recital for the Songfest festival featuring music of the First and Second World Wars, including the American premiere of Pavel Haas’s Fata Morgana

• Recovered Voices (in collaboration with the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at The Colburn School and the OREL Foundation) featuring composers whose lives, work and reputations suffered as a consequence of the cataclysms brought on by the Nazi regime in mid-20th century Europe.

• Franz Liszt: The Man and The Artist, a journey through the composer’s life through song, interspersed with readings from letters and tributes

• Hommage a Debussy, an exploration of the wealth of influences and motifs in his work with projections of over 100 works of visual art

• The Song of Love Triumphant centered around a mystical short story by Turgenev and Chausson’s Poeme for violin inspired by it

• Painting in Tones – Composing in Colors with multimedia, including selections from multiple art-inspired art song cycles by Jake Heggie

• Uncommon Prayer (co-curated with pianist Kathleen Tagg), an exploration of spirituality around the globe