Faculty

Pianist Vladimir Valjarevic has taught at Mannes since 1997, first in the Preparatory Division and later in the College. Today he teaches piano in both divisions, along with College courses in piano pedagogy, piano literature, and piano duos. He is also on the piano faculty of Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts. A Steinway Artist and Fulbright Scholar, he brings three decades of international solo and chamber music performance to his teaching. His approach supports musical growth through curiosity, continuous learning, natural technique, and expressive freedom. He has given masterclasses and lectures on piano performance and pedagogy in the United States and China, and his writings appear in the Rast Musicology Journal. Summer festival faculty affiliations have included the Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, the Xi'an Music Festival, Mannes International Piano Festival, the Round Top Festival Institute in Texas, and the International Institute for Young Musicians in Kansas. He has also served as head of the Mannes Preparatory piano department and as chamber music coordinator at the Beijing festival. A former student of Pavlina Dokovska, he has worked alongside her for many years in pedagogy and performance.

As a performer, he has appeared across Europe, Asia, and North America, at venues including the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, and Bulgaria Hall in Sofia. His New York appearances include Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic, the 92nd Street Y, and the United Nations. His solo recording Tribute to Fauré on Labor Records was praised for its "caressing legato" and "silk-on-velvet seductiveness" (Fanfare) and its "beautiful lyricism and … wide variety of tones and colorings" (All Music Guide). In a review of a chamber music performance at Bargemusic, The Strad called him "an outstandingly responsive partner and superb tonalist." A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed with violinist Miroslav Hristov as the Kaleidos Duo for twenty years. Their recordings include albums of rarely performed Balkan repertoire (Centaur Records) and Italian repertoire (Romeo Records), as well as the works of Martinů (Blue Griffin Recording). He has worked with many contemporary composers on commissions and world premieres and has been a member of the Hudson Piano Trio. He has also recorded for MSR Classics.

Born in Bosnia, Valjarevic began his musical studies there before continuing at the Belgrade Conservatory in Serbia. He then moved to the United States, earning his BM and MM at Mannes and his DMA at Rutgers. With support from a Fulbright scholarship and a Swiss government arts grant, he studied at the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland, where he also took clavichord lessons with Nicole Hostettler at the Centre de Musique Ancienne. His principal teachers were Pavlina Dokovska, Pascal Devoyon, Susan Starr, Vladimir Feltsman, and Planinka Jurišić-Atić. Music festival studies included IMS Prussia Cove in the UK, the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in France, the Apeldoorn Festival in the Netherlands, and Kneisel Hall in Maine. In addition, he holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from the University of London.