Pianist and music educator Irina Tchantceva studied piano in the former Soviet Union where she graduated from Yerevan Music College (B.A. with honors), Armenian State Conservatory (M.M. summa cum laude) and received D.M. in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Moscow State Conservatory. She studied with Yuri Airapetian in Armenia and Vladimir Nathanson in Moscow.

For ten years Irina was on the faculty of Armenian State Conservatory in Yerevan where she was a Professor of Methodology of Piano Teaching and Art of Accompaniment. She was also a pianist for Studio of famed conductor Valeri Gergiev as well as staff accompanist for the Vocal Department of the Conservatory.

After arrival to the United States in 1991 she started to work at the Music School of Rhode Island Philharmonic where she is currently the Chair of Piano Department. For twenty years Irina was an adjunct faculty member at Providence College where she also worked as an accompanist for the Choir and Concert Chorale. Irina Tchantceva was the music director, choir director and pianist at the Bell Street Chapel in Providence from 1992 until 2019. As an artistic director of the “Bell Street Chapel Concert Series” she invited many distinguished musicians to appear in various programs of the series.

After recently relocating from New England to California she started to work as a pianist/accompanist at Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento from August of 2019 along with maintaining her private studio and teaching online.

Irina is an active performer. She performed over four hundred concerts as a soloist, accompanist, member of piano duos and ensemble musician at numerous venues throughout Russia, Armenia, Rhode Island and greater New England, and collaborated with many outstanding instrumentalists and vocalists performing music from baroque to contemporary.

Teaching piano is Irina’s true passion. She has many talented students of different ages and interests. Many of her students are winners of various national and local competitions, and they are alumni and students of prestigious higher education institutions such as Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music, Berklee College of Music, Yale University, Brown University and many others.

Irina is a member of Music Teachers National Association, Rhode Island Music Teachers Association and California Association of Professional Music Teachers.