Celebrated American pianist Robin McCabe has enthralled audiences on four continents with her virtuosic performances, and has established herself as one of America’s most communicative and persuasive artists. McCabe’s involvement and musical sensibilities have delighted audiences across the United States, Europe, Canada, South America, and the Far East.
Critics respond both to McCabe’s prowess and to her expressive intensity. As noted by the New York Times, “What Ms. McCabe has that raises her playing to such a special level is a strong lyric instinct and confidence in its ability to reach and touch the listener.” She has won numerous prizes and awards, and her recordings have received universal acclaim. Her debut album featured the Agosti transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, a premiere recording of that piece. Critics praised it as “mightily impressive.” Stereo Review described her disc of Bartok as “all that we have come to expect from this artist, a first-rate performance!”
McCabe, a Puyallup native, earned her bachelor of music degree summa cum laude at the University of Washington School of Music, where she studied with Béla Siki, and her master’s and doctorate degrees at the
Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Rudolf Firkusny. She joined the Juilliard faculty in 1978, then returned to the UW in 1987 to accept a position on the piano faculty. In 1994 McCabe was appointed Director of the School of Music. She continues to teach as Professor of Piano and head of the school’s keyboard division, and was one of two Ruth Sutton Waters Professors of Music for 2002-05. In addition, McCabe is a persuasive arts ambassador and advocate for arts audience development.
The winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the International Concert Artists Guild Competition and a Rockefeller Foundation grant, McCabe was the subject of a lengthy New Yorker magazine profile, “Pianist’s Progress,” which was later expanded into a book of the same title.
She was honored in 1993 at Seattle’s Association for Women in Communications annual Matrix Table dinner, at which outstanding women of achievement in business, the arts, and community service are recognized. In 1995 McCabe presented the annual faculty lecture — a concert with commentary — at the University of Washington. She was the first professor of music in the history of the University to be awarded this lectureship. The November 1997 issue of Seattle magazine selected McCabe as one of 17 current and past University of Washington professors who have had an impact on life in the Pacific Northwest.
McCabe performs regularly throughout the United States, and in 2007, she made her fifth concert tour of Japan. She appears often as an invited jurist for international piano competitions, most recently in New Orleans, San Antonio and Vancouver, Canada.
Dr. Alexander Tutunov is one of the most outstanding virtuosos of the former Soviet Union. His playing was described by Soviet Culture, Moscow, as "exhilarating and inspired, and which demonstrated a unique talent". A native of Belarus, he entered the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory at age 7, one of three chosen out of 200 applicants, to study with Lev Naumov and Victor Merzhanov, where he graduated magna cum laude.
He also holds diplomas in concert performance, with honors, from the Minsk Musical College (Belarus), University of North Texas (piano studies with Joseph Banowetz), and the Belarussian National Academy of Music. Tutunov was awarded the highest post graduate degree in concert performance from the Belarussian State Conservatory in Minsk. Tutunov won the First Prize at the Belarussian National Piano Competition, and was a winner of the Russian National Piano Competition. He has performed widely in the former Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, China, Mexico, and the United States as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and on radio and television.
Tutunov is presently under contract with Altarus Records to record the complete solo piano works of Lev Abeliovich. He also has recorded on AUR, Bravissimo, and Albany Records labels.Currently director of keyboard studies and artists in residence at Southern Oregon University, Tutunov is also the artist in residence at the University of Alaska Southeast and Artistic director of the SOU International Piano Institute. He continues to be in great demand as a recitalist and orchestral soloist.