Tatjana Rankovich

Described by The New York Times as an “astonishingly good pianist,” the founder and director of the Music&More SummerFest, Tatjana Rankovich has 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 recording 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."

Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Dr. Rankovich was a Fulbright Scholar and a laureate of numerous awards. She holds her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Julliard School and her Doctorate from Rutgers University. Her teachers and mentors were of the legendary Leschetizky and Liszt traditions: Arbo Valdma, Josef Raieff, Clifton Matthews, Claude Frank, Daniel Epstein 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and scholarly research at Rutgers University (May, 2017) for her thesis: “Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto: the unpublished revisions and its Doppelgänger chamber versions.” Her many acclaimed discs were released by Phoenix USA, Naxos, Albany, Artek, Dezil, Citadel and IBOX. 

A Founding Executive and Artistic Director at Music & More SummerFest, she is presently on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, a visiting Professor at ECPD - European Center for Peace and Development in Belgrade, Serbia, and most recently, President and CEO/Chair at The Music and More Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization based in the US.