TEACHING
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PIANO STUDIO
Dr. Stepanova has been on the faculty at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music in Athens, GA since 2015. She was recently promoted to Professor of Piano beginning August 2025 and served as the chair of the piano area for three years.
Stepanova is a sought-after pedagogue. Recent student successes include prizes at the national round of the MTNA Competition, the Wideman concerto competition, WPTA Finland, Ohio-Liszt, and other solo and concerto contests. Summer festival placements include Aspen, Bowdoin, Piano Texas, and the Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Her graduate students have presented and performed at national conferences of MTNA and NCKP as well as abroad in Ireland and Serbia. Alumni of her studio work and perform nationally and internationally, collaborate with composers in creation of new music, and have established new schools and concert series.
At UGA, Stepanova has most recently been awarded the Creative Research Medal.
Read more about Stepanova’s UGA work:
Stepanova Brings Lifetime of Passion to Piano (UGA Research, 2022)
Faculty Member Transcends Barriers with Music (UGA Today, 2022)
Learn more and apply to study at the UGA, Hugh Hodgson School of Music: http://www.music.uga.edu/
Dr. Stepanova previously taught at Smith College in Northampton, MA as the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano. Between 2011 and 2015, she was also on the faculty at The Juilliard School where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in keyboard harmony and music history among others. She holds a BM in piano performance and pedagogy from the "Hanns Eisler" Academy of Music in Berlin, Germany and a MM and DMA from the Juilliard School, where she was a recipient of the Richard F. French award for an outstanding doctoral document.
SUMMER TEACHING
Brevard Music Center, Summer Festival and Institute, solo piano studio
Dr. Stepanova teaches in the second session of the Brevard Music Festival. At Brevard, she gives private lessons to a full studio of pianists, holds studio classes, gives lectures and masterclasses, and performs. Brevard accepts both advanced pre-college as well as college students and offers many performance and competition opportunities during the summer. Learn more and apply here.
Bowdoin International Music Festival, chamber music
A dedicated chamber musician, Stepanova also performs and coaches talented chamber music groups at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. Learn more.
Songfest, art song programming and coaching
Stepanova has a particular passion for the art song repertoire having studied with Wolfram Rieger, Margo Garrett, and in masterclasses with the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She has been affiliated with Songfest for over a decade, having served as an Associate Artistic Director of the program for two years, and returns to the festival every year to program concerts and coach international art song repertoire. Songfest is on hiatus in 2025 but will return in the summer of 2026.
CURRENT STUDENTS AND ALUMNI
