Roza Yoder

Róża Kostrzewska Yoder made her orchestral debut at the age of eleven, has recorded for Polish National Radio and Polish National Television, and is the prizewinner of many piano competitions. She has collaborated in chamber performances with Luz Leskowitz, Jorg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda, and the Salzburg Solisti, and has performed in solo recital in Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, and the United States.

A graduate with highest distinction from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Róża studied under Bronislava Kawalla, Jan Ekier (Former Chair of the Jury of the Chopin International Piano Competition), Daniel Pollack, Antoinette and John Perry, Vitaly Margulis, and Irina Dąbrowska. Active as a performer and teacher in Greater Los Angeles, Róża frequently gives master classes and lectures for students and teachers, and has led many summer study programs in Poland, France and the United States. She has taught as an invited colleague at festival courses with Dina Joffe (Second Prize Winner of the Chopin International Piano Competition), Natalia Troull (Second Prize Winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition and Professor of Piano at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory), (Pavel Nersessian, First Prize Winner of the International Dublin Piano Competition and Professor of Piano at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory), and Edward Wolanin (First Prize Winner of the Darmstadt International Piano Competition and Professor at the Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw).

Róża’s piano students are regularly awarded top prizes at state, regional, national, and international competitions, including the Los Angeles Liszt International Competition, the Carmel Competition, the Beverly Hills Auditions, the Antelope Valley Competition, the Redwood Bowl Competition, the Glendale Competition, the Long Beach Mozart Festival, and the Southwest Youth Music Festival. Her students have performed with the Uribe Symphony Orchestra of Uruguay, the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, the La Mirada Orchestra, the Brentwood Symphony Orchestra, the Azusa Pacific University Orchestra, and in venues that include Carnegie Hall. Young pianists who have studied with her have continued their studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Chopin Academy of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, the USC Thornton School of Music, Stanford University, and Harvard University.

Ms. Kostrzewska Yoder’s performances include the Brahms d minor Piano Concerto with the Palomar Symphony Orchestra, and a series of solo, concerto and chamber music concerts in Finland.

Excellent understanding of style, sensitive taste, pianistic facility, uniquely personal attention to the beauty of tone, and a sculptured sense of the shape of musical language: this is a picture of her students. – Natalia Troull, Professor of Piano, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Russia

Róża Kostrzewska Yoder stands in the tradition of the great Polish school of pianism, whose roots extend through individuals such as her professors Bronislava Kawalla and Jan Ekier, former Chair of Chopin International Piano Competition, to the Viennese school of Theodore Leschetizky. This school of teaching holds as a greatest value, in addition to developing professional competence at the highest level, the direct relationship between the master teacher and the student. This requires not only the passing on musical knowledge but also the shaping of the personality of a young artist. I confirm with full awareness, and also with great joy, that Ms. Kostrzewska Yoder’s artistic activity results from the great tradition of European art and pedagogy. – Edward Wolanin, Professor of Piano, Frederic Chopin University of Music, Warsaw, Poland

During and between my visits, I was pleased to observe remarkable growth of the pianists at the Azusa Pacific School of Music, thanks to Róża Kostrzewska Yoder’s excellence and dedication as a teacher. This was made possible by the rare atmosphere of special care, respect and camaraderie Róża has always encouraged in her studio. – Eteri Andjaparidze, DMA, Winner of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition