Early life and music education Sophia Agranovich was born in
Chernivtsi,
Ukrainian SSR,
Soviet Union (modern-day
Ukraine). Her father was a dentist and her mother was an instructor of the English language and her first piano teacher. Agranovich began formal piano lessons at age five. At six she was accepted to Chernivtsi School of Music and gave her first public concert. Her teachers were Anna Stolyarevich and
Alexander Edelmann (both peers of
Vladimir Horowitz and disciples of
Felix Blumenfeld and
Heinrich Neuhaus). At age 10 Agranovich won the
Ukrainian Young Artists Competition (now known as the
Mykola Lysenko International Music Competition), as that year's youngest participant. Her concerts were broadcast on national TV and radio stations. Agranovich graduated from Chernivtsi School of Music in 1971. After immigrating with her family to the United States at age 15, Agranovich entered
The Juilliard School Pre-College in New York City on a full scholarship in the class of Professor
Sascha Gorodnitzki. Agranovich also studied with
Nadia Reisenberg. She graduated from Juilliard with a
Bachelor of Music degree in 1977 and a Master of Music degree in 1978. Agranovich won the Bergen Philharmonic Competition in 1979. She was awarded a
fellowship and taught piano minor at Juilliard. Agranovich continued her academic pursuits at
Teachers College, Columbia University, taking Doctor of Philosophy coursework in
Music Education,
Music Theory and
Music History from 1980 to 1981.
Hiatus from music Agranovich paused her musical career in the 1980s to raise a family and to pursue an additional career in
Information Technology. Having earned a certification in
Computer Science from the Empire Technical School in New York City in 1981, her career in technology developed with her employment as a systems analyst for the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1985 (where she received the Presidential Quality Award for Computer Systems Design and Support), and later a senior programmer/analyst at
Merrill Lynch in 1987. She was ultimately promoted to project manager/assistant vice president in 1995 and vice president in 2001.
Music career In 2008, Agranovich restarted her professional musical career as a concert pianist, recording artist, music educator and program director. and
Juan-les-Pins in France where she premiered
Quatre préludes en hommage a Chopin, Op. 162 dedicated to her by the French composer
Françoise Choveaux. Other premieres included Roger Stubblefield's
Sonata for clarinet and piano and
Nocturne for viola and piano. Other major festivals she had participated at is Les Arts George V in Paris, Festival Musicale delle Nazioni in Rome, and Aspen in USA. Some of the venues she performed at are
David Geffen (former Avery Fisher) Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium and Paul Hall at
Lincoln Center,
Carnegie Weill Recital Hall,
Merkin Concert Hall,
Roerich and
Metropolitan museums,
Bargemusic, Tenri Cultural Institute, Polish Cultural Foundation, Lambert Castle, Watchung Arts Center, Sieminski Theater, Hunter Hall, Madison Arts Center, Salle Cortot,
American Cathedral in Paris,
Teatro di Marcello, Sala Baldini, Ehrbarsaal, Théâtre Na Loba, Gesellschaft für Musiktheater at Palais Khevenhüller, and Kaiser Hall. Other performance venues include numerous colleges and universities, such as the
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Drew University, Princeton Univercity,
Rubin Academy of Music,
Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music and Lviv State Conservatory. She has collaborated with
Mark Peskanov,
Shlomo Mintz, Christopher Collins Lee,
Andrew Litton,
Alexander Mishnaevski, Gregory Singer,
Brett Deubner, Andrew Lamy, Andatole Wieck,
Rupam Sarmah,
Lili Haydn, Hamid Saeidi,
Kathleen Supové, award-winning Emmy, Grammy, and Billboard top ten musical artists, and members of the major orchestras. Agranovich co-produced and released twelve albums from 2010, including eight on Centaur Records, consisting primarily of virtuoso piano repertoire of the
Romantic era. She is an author of her albums' critically acclaimed liner notes, referred to as "detailed and well-written" and "enlightening and insightful". She has also performed in and co-produced several multi-instrumental singles that blend elements of classical, folk, Middle Eastern, Indian, New Age, and global fusion music, crossing traditional genre boundaries. Her performances are broadcast in Brazil on Universidade FM 106.9, "Company of the Music", in Canada on
CKWR "Women in Music," Berlin, Munich, Rome, New Zealand, London, Tokyo, Osaka, Southampton, Luxembourg, Portugal, Paris, Tel-Aviv, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canary Islands, and in New York area on
WWFM "Between the Keys" with Jed Distler and "Piano Matters" with
David Dubal,
WMNR "Friday Evenings with Will Duchon",
NPR WLPR-FM "Art on the Air", with David Dubal, and live at
WQXR Greene Space. Sophia Agranovich is on the
Steinway Artists roster, and is listed annually in
Marquis Who's Who in America and
Who's Who in the World. She has been featured in American Record Guide, The Whole Note, World Culture Times, Musical America, FOX News, News ABC and other major media outlets. She is a voting member of
NARAS, GrammyU mentor, and an active member of numerous professional music organizations, including American Liszt Society, College Music Society, and Leschetizky Association. Additionally she served on the board of NJMTA affiliated with
Music Teachers National Association, and is an Artistic Director of "Classicals at the Circle" music series at the Watchung Arts Center. and a program chair and board member of Music Educators Association of New Jersey.
Pedagogy Sophia Agranovich is a music educator and has received numerous pedagogy awards. and had been accepted to notable music schools, including the
Juilliard School,
Mannes School of Music,
Manhattan School of Music,
Brown University,
Northwestern University and
New York University, among others. Her students have performed at the
Carnegie Weill Recital Hall,
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
Merkin Hall,
Alice Tully Hall,
Lincoln Center,
Kimmel Center, Tenri Cultural Institute,
Steinway Hall, Watchung Arts Center, and
Polish Embassy in New York. They also played in England, Italy, France, Austria, Poland, China and at various colleges, universities and libraries. Their performances were broadcast on radio and TV, including
WWFM "Kids on Keys" with Jed Distler and
WQXR "Young Artists Showcase" with
Robert Sherman. == Awards and honors ==