Faculty

Described byThe New York Timesas an “astonishingly good pianist,” Tatjana Rankovichhas performed throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Central and South America. She is the first pianist ever to play the First, Second and Third Piano Concertos of Nicolas Flagello, recording them with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Slovak Philharmonic, which were released to unanimous praise and chosen for one of the five “best of the year” recordings in 1996, 1999 and 2005, by Fanfare magazine. These premiere recordings were described as “splendid” and “superb.” In his review (Classical Net, 2008), of the Naxos/Flagello Piano Concerto CD, Steve Schwartz writes: “…pianist Tatjana Rankovich, one of my favorite performers, who routinely takes risks on unknown repertoire. She undoubtedly knows like the back of her well-muscled hand the Russian school of piano writing Flagello makes use of. She plays with fiery power. At the end of the recording I, without giving it a thought, stood up. Imagine what she would do to a live audience.” She has recorded many other acclaimed discs for Phoenix USA, Naxos, Albany, Artek, Dezil, Citadel, and most recently, a highly praised 3-disk set of live recordings for IBOX. The review by Jerry Dubins of Fanfare Magazine (October, 2010) reads: “My long time favorite recording (of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto #1) has been the one with Argerich….But I think this version with Rankovich now takes pride of place. It’s quite stunning...” 

Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Dr. Rankovich was a Fulbright Scholar, a laureate of numerous awards and a recepient of a prestigious State Award, “Golden Badge,” which is awarded annually by the Serbian Ministry of Diaspora in Belgrade, she holds her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and her Doctorate from Rutgers University. Her teachers and mentors were of the legendary Leschetizky and Liszt traditions of piano performance: Arbo Valdma, Josef Raieff, Clifton Matthews, Claude Frank and Benjamin Kaplan. Most recently, she was a recipient of the prestigious Irene Alm Memorial Prize for excellence in performance and scholarly research at Rutgers University (May, 2017) for her thesis: “Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto: the unpublished revisions and its Doppelgängerchamber versions.”

She holds a Visiting Professor of Piano position at the European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) of the University for Peace establishe by the United Nations in Belgrade. Dr. Rankovich is the Founder and Artistic Director of Music & More SummerFest – International Classical Music Festival in Trebinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina and President of the Music and More Foundation, a US non-profit charitable organization, which is devoted to music education and the provision of scholarship for music students through education, performance and research.