Artist biography

Eugene Pridonoff is internationally recognized as a leading performing pedagogue for over a half century and was Professor of Piano at the University of Cincinnati, Arizona State University, Iowa State University and Temple University. Former students were first place winners in the Horowitz, Missouri Southern, American Pianists Association, Shreveport Wideman, and Midland-Odessa competitions, and according to the September 2022 MTNA e-JOURNAL are among the most tenured and tenure-track piano performance faculty in the United States from leading teachers and institutions.  Linked with the great performing traditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Eugene Pridonoff studied with Rudolf Serkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Eleanor Sokoloff, Lillian Steuber, Emmanuel Bay, and Alice Ehlers, at the University of Southern California, Curtis Institute of Music, and Temple University.

Now an Emeritus Professor of Piano at the University of Cincinnati living in Ohio and Arizona, he is continuing creative and collaborative learning as a performer, listener, and teacher. Begun during his years at Arizona State University with ASU colleague James Ruccolo and later with James Tocco and Elisabeth Pridonoff at the University of Cincinnati, the fruition of collaborative learning emerged at the CCM Prague International Piano Institute where he was Co-Director with Elisabeth Pridonoff.  Students having lessons with five different teachers resulted in teachers invested with all the students and the students invested in each other.  Since 2004, both Eugene and Elisabeth Pridonoff have taught at the Ichionkai School in Tokyo where parents and the students’ teachers sit in on lessons.  Students there included Kyohei Sorita who won 2nd place in the 18th Chopin Competition and Mao Fujita who won 2nd place in the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition.  Collaborative learning continues with the Arizona Piano Institute’s 2023 Teacher Forum and a third retreat in Bluefield, West Virginia with Dr.  Maira Balacon Liliestedt, and the talented and charismatic creative improvisers Rachel Dean and Ian LeRoy from New York.

Eugene Pridonoff has performed with orchestras throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Beijing Central Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, San Salvador Symphony Orchestra, and duo and solo performances in U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Moscow, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Prague, and festivals in Belgium, Italy, and Spain.

Eugene Pridonoff is a Steinway Artist and can be heard on YouTube, Spotify, and ablaze Records.