University of Alabama at Birmingham freshman and Honors Program student Aleksandra Kasman won the senior piano division of the Music Teachers National Association state auditions held Nov. 1-2 in Auburn, Ala. Kasman will now represent Alabama in the Southern Division MTNA auditions that will take place Jan. 17-20, 2014, in Louisville, Ky. The Southern Division will feature nine winners from nine states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. All will compete, and the winner will go on to the MTNA National Competition to be held in the spring.
Kasman studies piano in the UAB Department of Music with her father, Professor of Piano Yakov Kasman, D.M.A.
“It was a very strong competition,” said the elder Kasman. “She performed works by Beethoven and Prokofiev and got rave comments from the out-of-state judges.”
The father-daughter duo recently performed with the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina on Oct. 12. In June she won second prize and the Young Jury Award in Columbia, S.C., at the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition.