Gorin's Piano Studio: From Children to Adults. From Beginners to Professionals

Our whole family, including the grandparents in China are in big joy of Emily’s winning an Honorable Mention at a World Piano Competition. At this moment I really want to express our gratefulness to you. It was you who gave Emily such a precious opportunity to play on that prestigious stage. It was you who advanced Emily to perform piano on a totally different level from before. It was you who spent so much extra time on Emily's preparation for this competition.Thank you!

It was such an experience that neither Emily nor I would ever forget. Even though she did not show her best performance, we are all very happy for her to get what she deserved. It is also exciting news that Emily could go to Carnegie Hall to play.

This is a VERY late message -- but I want to congratulate you on Jason's performance last Saturday. Your teaching is stellar, and his performance was outstanding. I cannot remember ever hearing a performance of the Khatchaturian Toccata that moved me so profoundly.

On my ride home -- I remembered that Jason is the student I had heard a few years ago when I judged District C.. Jason has grown up nicely -- and his playing has matured richly -- thanks to your teaching.

Please convey my sincere congratulations to him -- I will look forward to hearing him again at the state competition.

Most sincerely,
Liz Seidel - Ball State Universty

When I entered the World Piano Competition, I was very nervous. I thought I would never win, since it was my first time entering the World Piano Competition. The competition took place in Cincinnati, Ohio on the 4th of July.
When I got on stage, I calmed down, relaxed, and became happy. After my performance, I won an award called “Honorable Mention”. My family was very surprised. My mom called me “Mr. Honorable Mention” because I have won more than three Honorable Mention awards in the past 7 months.
I also get to go to the Carnegie Hall in New York City to perform there. I will go there this September. My family will come too. After that, I will hang out there and I hope we’ll have fun there.
I feel great because I play the piano.

I just wanted to let you know that I am so thankful to have had you as my piano teacher these last 5 years. It is so sad, and yet a necessary part of life to move on. Thinking that today was the last lesson however, made me miss you so much already, and I found myself in tears all the way home. I look forward to continued interaction through teaching, and will also keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.

I can’t believe four years passed since I started lessons with you! Time sure flies. As I get ready to move on to college, I just want to say thank you so much for all you have invested in my life these past four years. Thank you for the time, energy, and love you have put into teaching me music – giving me instructions and advice, preparing me for recitals and competitions, teaching me how to teach, and helping me grow in my appreciation of music.

I’m looking forward to studying music at Butler and seeing where God will take me over the next four years. But I will miss you very much! You have been more than just a teacher to me – you have also been a wonderful friend. May God bless you!

Our daughter, Carly, has been blessed to be a student of Mrs.Gorin for five years. We have been impressed with Irina's professionalism, concern and calm demeanor. She expects the best from her pupils and encourages them with gentle discipline. Carly is now quite an accomplished pianist-- performing at competitions, accompanying other musicians and even teaching her own beginning student. We are glad Irina has nutured the gift of music in our child.

As a parent, I could not be more pleased or excited that I have two children enrolled in Mrs. Gorin's studio. As I watch both Mrs. Gorin and her student teacher instruct my daughter, it is like watching art in action. I took lessons myself when I was young for seven years, yet through my children's instruction, I'm relearning piano indirectly in a way that is logical and progressive. I'm astounded by Mrs. Gorin's giftedness as a teacher. She is able to assess each student's abilities and varying degrees of determination in order to best teach, challenge and encourage. This is a professional studio of the highest quality, yet my children feel valued and encouraged, even nurtured under the instruction of the teachers. I remain grateful for Mrs. Gorin's studio. Our home is filled with music and eager learners as a result!

Six piano students, including two from Carmel, who study at the Gorin’s Piano Studio and International Talent Academy will be performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City this fall.
They earned that honor at the 51st annual World Piano Competition from June 26-30 at Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati. The students are: Hollyn Keith, 8, earned a gold medal in level 1; Emily Xu, 7, earned an honorablemention in level 3; Rebecca Ito, 11, earned agold in level 4; Michiru Kikuchi, 11, earned a silver in level 4; Jennifer Lee, 9, earned an honorable mention in level 8; and Hannah Carroll, 11, earned a bronze in the concerto division of level 9. Emily and Michiru live in Carmel.
They were among more than 200 students age 17 and under from the United States and other countries (China, Japan, Canada, Romania, India, Venezuela, South Korea, and Thailand) to participate in Cincinnati.

International Talent Academy is looking for sponsors to send the young artists to New York. It will cost about $1,500 to cover the plane tickets for three families. To help, call 815.9381, e-mail Tatyana_@InternationalTalentAcademy.org.

Dedication rewarded
Competition offers opportunity for hard-working young pianists to see . . .
By Melanie D. Hayes
melanie.d.hayes@indystar.com

Hannah Carroll practices two hours every day. That dedication paid off when she won a gold medal in the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati in July.
Hannah, 10, Westfield, is one of several kids from Carmel and the surrounding area who placed well at the competition and earned a chance to play in a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Sisters Irina Gorin and Ada Shebanova each run their own private piano schools in Carmel and had nine students claim top honors in their levels at the competition. The competition included 200 students from Grades K-12, divided into categories based on experience, Gorin said.
As a reward, five of the students traveled to New York to play at Carnegie Hall on Sept. 30.
Those students were Hannah, a home-schooled student; Sayuka Minami, 10, an Orchard Park student who won second place; Yoko Iwase, 11, a Prairie Trace student who won second; Jeffrey Cheng, 9, a student at Sycamore School in Indianapolis who won second; and Michiru Kikuchi, 11, a College Wood student who earned honorable mention.
Other students who placed well but chose not to make the trip to New York were Chelsea Dai, 6, a Prairie Trace student who won second place; and Yue Jiang, 15, a Carmel High School student who won second in the concerto division.
Brittany Todd, 11, a student at Clay Junior High School, and Alex Huang, 8, both earned an honorable mention. Alex's school was not available.
Yue has placed well the last three years at the world competition and played at Carnegie Hall the first two years. He has been playing piano for eight years.
"It was nice," he said of performing on the famous stage. "It was an honor. It was exciting, and I wasn't all that nervous because I knew the piece pretty well."
Hannah, who has been taking piano lessons for two years, was both scared and excited to play at Carnegie Hall. The solo she performed was Sonatina in A Minor by Albert Biehl.
"I said a Bible verse to myself when I was waiting, and my mom and dad talked to me and comforted me," she said about how she prepared for the recital. "That helped. Carnegie Hall was a very beautiful, beautiful place. It was a nice experience to play there."
Gorin, 42, who teaches 50 students at Gorin's Piano Studio, has had students win at the World Piano Competition for three years straight and then perform in New York.
"Those kids work really, really hard," said the Ukraine native, who has been teaching piano for 10 years in Carmel.
"It's a huge honor to play at Carnegie Hall. It's a very festive atmosphere with kids from eight countries."

Early childhood development is goal of fledgling talent academy.

The brain operates on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, and educator Tatyana Komarova wants to make sure children are using it while their brains are developing most rapidly (before age 6) so they don't lose it as they become adults.

She's working to establish the International Talent Academy in Carmel to fill a void she sees in early childhood development and arts education.

Komarova is joining forces with Irina Gorin, who runs a successful piano studio in Carmel - six of her students received highest honors at the World Piano Competition in July and will perform at Carnegie Hall in September. The business partners want to create an academy that stresses performing arts but includes an early childhood development arm (for children as young as 6 months) and a parents academy, which would provide skills and information to help parents understand and guide their children.

"Parents are always the best teachers," Komarova said. "They know their children's strengths, unique interests and potential. I want to teach parents the importance of early child education and inspire them to get started early. I'm not talking about a traditional classroom setting - the key is learning through play."

Komarova holds bachelor's degrees in music education and theater and has a master's in executive development for public services. She has worked for the past several years on building programs for pedagogy. Her mission is to make use of the spongy capacity for learning that young children's brains have.

"The earlier children start learning, the greater their future potential," Komarova said.

Her inspiration came from a book, "How To Teach Your Baby To Read," by Glenn Doman. Komarova used Doman's technique to start teaching her daughter to read when she was a year old, and the experience encouraged her to delve further into the ins and outs of brain development.

Now she's combining what she has long known about the benefits of performing arts with her research to make sure young children get the most out of their early years, when their brains are highly receptive to education.

Programs at the academy include dance, music, theater, visual arts, gymnastics and etiquette. A broad early education that includes movement and music gives children a sure foundation for future learning, according to Komarova, who moved to Carmel six years ago and feels the area is ripe for her school.

"There's not enough opportunity for students to excel in all that the arts offer," Komarova said. "We'll be offering all these classes in one location so parents don't have to run from place to place taking their children to music, theater, dance or art classes all over town. Our academy will encourage families to spend more time learning together."

Komarova's vision is for an academy whose very name becomes shorthand for quality arts education: "I want universities to recognize that the International Talent Academy is a world-class institution," she said, "and to recognize that our graduates have superior education in the arts."

Christen Stubbs' fingers flow along glistening black and white piano keys, and her upper body sways with nuances that help her interpret Debussy's "Arabesque."

Her teacher, Irina Gorin, offers gentle, frequent guidance from an adjacent seat in her Carmel home studio, reminding Stubbs to relax a shoulder, lighten her touch and bring out the melody of the piece during a half-hour lesson this week.

Stubbs, 17, is among four of Gorin's students, ages 9-17, who earned national honors and the right to perform at New York City's Carnegie Hall in October.

Also going is 11-year-old grand prize winner JingXuan Zhang, taught by Ada Shebanova, who is Gorin's sister.

More than 150 students 17 and under from the United States and five other countries participated in the 48th annual World Piano Competition from July 2-5 at Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati.

JingXuan, a sixth-grader at Creekside Middle School in Carmel, won the competition's grand prize, becoming the youngest person in the association's history to do so.

In addition to American entrants in the contest sponsored by the American Music Scholarship Association Inc., students from Canada, China, Japan, Poland and Romania also competed.

"I'm excited, but kind of sad, too, since I'll probably never get to taste this again," said Sese, a Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School senior.

Stubbs, who is home-schooled, was Gorin's first American student after the Ukrainian-born piano teacher emigrated to Carmel with her husband, Myron, and son, Eugene, then 3, in 1994. Stubbs started lessons in 1995.

Stubbs and Gorin met through a Carmel piano tuner Bob Staley, who was acquainted with both. That launched a full schedule of students for Gorin and a passion for music for Stubbs.

"It's another world for me, a place I can go to let everything out," Stubbs said.

Gorin gives some teaching duties to advanced students such as Stubbs, who teach private lessons and monthly group theory classes to beginners.

It's a practice Gorin learned as a young student in Kiev, where she started teaching private students at age 15.

"I realized I knew so much better how to play when I taught. You go back to the basics with little kids," she said.

Stubbs teaches nine students, including Carmel residents Micah and Rebecca Ito, ages 6 and 8, who attend The Oaks Academy in Indianapolis in second and fourth grades, respectively.

"She's very organized, loves the piano and loves to help others. There's that gentle coaxing, but she keeps the joy in it."

Ito, a 1990 graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and cultural awareness consultant for Toussaint and Company, Indianapolis, applauds Gorin's efforts.