Pianist Sasha Kasman Laude’s playing is praised by critics as “powerful and vivid” (Palm Beach Arts Review) and having “such an abundance of intelligence that it can only be described as relentless” (Ludwig Van Toronto). Kasman Laude is one of five finalists of the 2025 American Pianists Awards, competing for the Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship over the course of thirteen months. Her current concert season features performances with the Dover Quartet, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and return engagements for the Ilse Newell Concert Series (FL) and Brevard Symphony Orchestra (FL). She will serve on the jury of the 2024 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition.

 

Kasman Laude has given solo recitals in such venues as Steinway Hall in New York City, Yamaha Ginza Hall in Tokyo, Salle Cortot in Paris, and Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa as part of a recital tour of twelve cities across Italy. Named a Young Artist-in-Residence of NPR’s Performance Today in 2019, Kasman Laude’s playing and interviews have been broadcast on NPR stations nationwide. Kasman Laude has received top prizes in numerous national and international competitions, most recently including the 2022 Honens International Piano Competition (Calgary, Canada). She has performed as a soloist with over a dozen symphony orchestras in the USA and abroad, including the Juilliard Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Dayton Philharmonic, Alabama, Huntsville, Ann Arbor, LaGrange, and Hendersonville Symphony Orchestras, and played seven different concertos with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. She has worked under the batons of maestros including Jeffrey Kahane, Neal Gittleman, Gregory Vajda, Jeffrey Milarsky, Yaniv Attar, Christopher Confessore, and Natalia Ponomarchuk. 

 

Kasman Laude is an advocate and experienced performer of contemporary music, premiering works of living composers Stewart Goodyear, Marc Migó, Nathan Daughtrey, Zachary Detrick, and Eric Mobley. In addition to her vibrant solo playing, Kasman Laude is an enthusiastic chamber musician and has collaborated with such distinguished players as Martin Beaver, Blake Pouliot, Doori Na, Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, the New York Chamber Players, and the Viano, Aeolus, and Fry Street quartets. She and her father Yakov Kasman have been an internationally-touring piano duo for fourteen years. Engagement highlights of the past season have included performances of both Rachmaninoff piano trios for the Birmingham Chamber Music Society and Carmina Burana for choirs, two pianos, and percussion with Luminous Voices Ensemble (Canada).

 

Kasman Laude appears as a guest artist, teacher, and adjudicator at the invitation of such festivals as the International Keyboard Institute and Festival, International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival, pianoSonoma,Vivace International Music Festival, Southeastern Piano Festival, Kyiv International Summer Academy (Ukraine), Busan International Music Academy (South Korea), and PianoCity Milano (Italy). She has lectured and given masterclasses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Calgary, Lee University, Bowling Green State University, and Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. She is passionate about music outreach and has given over one hundred educational performances in schools and community venues, in large part as a Fellow of PianoArts of Wisconsin.

 

A native of Moscow, Kasman Laude began her musical studies with her parents, acclaimed pianists and pedagogues Yakov and Tatiana Kasman. She continued studying with her father at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and went on to earn an MM degree from the Juilliard School, studying with Robert McDonald. In the spring of 2023, Kasman Laude received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan, where she was the studio assistant of Logan Skelton, won the school concerto competition, and received the School of Music, Theater, and Dance's top graduation honor, the Earl V. Moore Award.

 

In the fall of 2023, Kasman Laude joined the faculty of Utah State University’s Caine College of the Arts as Assistant Professor of Piano in the Department of Music. She was honored to perform alongside her distinguished colleagues and the American Festival, perform as a soloist with the USU Symphony Orchestra, and conduct dozens of pianists in the USU Youth Conservatory’s annual Monster Concerts. She is regularly invited to adjudicate and give masterclasses for local and state competitions and organizations, including the Utah Music Teachers Association state conference. Kasman Laude’s teaching emphasizes stylistic clarity rooted in academic study, and values the expressive traditions of the Russian school, as well as a deep awareness of pianistic health based in the Taubman approach and Alexander technique.