Faculty

Professor Nicholas Rada

Nicholas Rada is a pianist and a leading pedagogue in the Vancouver Area.

He has taught privately since 1999, and has been based in Vancouver, B.C. since 2005. His students have been regular competition winners both nationally and internationally, with many receiving first place at North Shore Music Festival, Richmond Music Festival, Kiwanis Music Festival, Student Performer’s Guild, Pacific Youth International Music Festival, Pacific Rim International Piano Competition, Seattle Young Artist’s Music Festival, among others. Since 2015, Nicholas’ students have been regular competitors at the National Finals of the Canadian Music Competition, with students receiving First Place annually since 2017.

Nicholas believes it is important to engage actively with the music community, and aims to encourage community engagement among his students, who perform at senior’s homes, community centers, and charity events every year. Nicholas is proud to have built a studio of serious young musicians, who are interested in not only in studying piano and theory, but advancing on to become young performers engaged in a multitude of musical activities. His students have gone on to advance their musical studies at a graduate level, with many having fruitful careers in music.

Since 2000, Nicholas has been providing masterclasses internationally, and has traveled abroad as a piano coach to Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and across the United States, including Greenville (South Carolina’s Governor’s School for the Arts), Seattle, Hartford, New Canaan, and New York. He has been a returning faculty member at Music Fest Perugia since 2017. Nicholas has been a judge at the C3 Piano Concerto Competition in Calgary, and a regularly returning judge at the Festival on the Lake since 2008.

Nicholas grew up in Vancouver, B.C., and was first taught to play and improvise by his father. Formal piano lessons continued in the hands of Patricia Hoebig, at which time Nicholas also began studying the violin under Helmut Hoebig. His early musical education consisted of intensive piano, violin, chamber music, and orchestra coaching with The Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra and The Vancouver Academy of Music. Nicholas went on to complete his Bachelor’s (with distinction) with a major in music and a minor in math at The State University of New York (Purchase) under the tutelage of Dr. Sasha Starcevich. In 1999, Nicholas was a regional finalist in the Music Teachers National Association Competition, as well as a top prizewinner in the national finals of the Canadian Music Competition. Following his Bachelor’s at Purchase, Nicholas went on to receive his Master’s at the University of British Columbia under the tutelage of Sara Davis Buechner.

Performance opportunities have brought him to such cities as Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, Czeske Budejovice, Munich, Baden-Baden, Perugia, Udine, New York, Boston, New Haven, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle and many others. He has performed with numerous orchestras, most recently appearing with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Il Soloisti di Perugia, the Vancouver Academy of Music, and the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Professor Evgenia Rada-Rabinovich

Dr. Evgenia Rabinovich is a Vancouver-based pianist, teacher, performer, and published researcher. She is a winner of numerous competitions, including the 2018 Silverman Concerto Competition, and the 2020 VWMS Bursary competition, most recently.

Evgenia teaches piano, theory, harmony, history, counterpoint, and composition. She has been teaching classical piano and theory for over 10 years, and has spent the last 8 years working as a university teaching assistant both in Canada and the United States. Her work includes four years of teaching at the University of British Columbia, where she taught Undergraduate Secondary Piano for four years, as well as four years of assistantship work at the Mannes School of Music in New York. Her private students receive First Class Honours With Distinction in both their piano and theory RCM studies, and are winners of the 2020 BCCM competition and the 2021 Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival.

Evgenia’s performance career includes concert appearances across the United States, Canada, Europe, and China. She has performed at venues such as Steinway Hall (NY), Sala Dei Notari (Italy), and the Chan Centre for Performing Arts (Vancouver). She has played internationally with multiple orchestras since her concerto debut with the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra under conductor Ken Hsieh at age 15, when she played Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor. Her most recent orchestral appearances include her performance with the UBC Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Jonathan Girard (2018), as well as international appearances and with the Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra under Maestro Danwen Wei in Italy (2017) and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Alicante under Maestro Uri Segal (2015).

Evgenia began her university studies at UBC at the age of 15 after graduating early via the University Transitions Program for Gifted Adolescents. She received Early Entrance to the University of British Columbia and was awarded The Major Entrance Scholarship, focusing her early studies on psychology and English rhetoric. Evgenia received her Bachelor’s degree as an Honours graduate of the Mannes School of Music in NY (BMUS, 2015) while studying with Professor Pavlina Dokovska. In 2017, she received her Master’s degree working with Professor Miranda Wong and Dr. Sara Davis Buechner at the University of British Columbia (MMUS, 2017). In 2025, she completed the Doctor of Musical Arts program at UBC with honours with distinction, majoring in piano performance under the guidance of Professor Mark Anderson.

Evgenia’s specialty is guiding students towards optimal performance through effective practice. Her doctoral work, “Fostering Flow in Piano Performance through Effective Practice,” provides insight into effective practice approaches and techniques of professional-level piano performance students, linking the theory of deliberate practice to the theory of flow in performance. In 2024-2025, Evgenia conducted a study examining the practice behaviours of adolescent and young-adult classical pianists at professional or near-professional performance level through the lens of Mihali Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory and the theory of deliberate practice proposed by K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf T. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Römer. Her work has been deemed instrumental in helping educators synthesize preparation and performance, providing learning strategies that positively impact performance and foster joy on stage.

Evgenia’s musical studies include long-term work with Dr. Sasha Starcevich and Mannes department head Pavlina Dokovska. Her work in chamber music includes years of studies with Professor Rena Sharon and pianist and critic Harris Goldsmith.

Evgenia has appeared as an adjudicator at Festival on the Lake (piano division) in Vancouver (2016). She enjoys performing during the summers, and engaging with audiences via social media. She has been a visiting performer at Music Fest Perugia since 2011, working as an administrative team member for the festival in 2016 and a Social Media Manager in 2017.