Alexander Toradze and the Toradze Piano Studio

1991 — 2022

A Soviet studio on the St. Joseph: The most internationally consequential music institution the city has housed was a piano studio. Alexander Toradze was born May 30, 1952, in Tbilisi, the son of the composer David Toradze; he graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1978, took the silver medal at the 1977 Van Cliburn Competition, and defected to the West in 1983, presenting himself at the United States Embassy in Madrid while touring with the Bolshoi Symphony. In 1991 he was appointed the Martin Endowed Professor of Piano at Indiana University South Bend — the first endowed piano professor at any Indiana University campus, in IUSB's own account, the chair established through a gift from Lee and Geraldine Martin. There he built the Toradze Piano Studio on the Soviet-school model: not a roster of private students but a multinational ensemble of his pupils that toured and performed as an ensemble, undertaking the marathon and complete-cycle projects that made its reputation — in New York in 2002–03, the complete Bach solo concerti and Scriabin's complete sonata cycle — and appearing at festivals including Salzburg, the London Proms, Edinburgh, Ravinia, and the Ruhr. The civic record kept pace with the artistic one: Toradze received the Governor's Arts Award in 2012 and was inducted into the South Bend Community Hall of Fame in 2014. His studio went on hiatus from 2014; he retired from IUSB in 2017, after more than twenty-five years, with the Martin Family Fellowship Piano Residencies to be overseen by a selection committee. He died May 11, 2022, aged 69 — the local obituary, in the South Bend Tribune, places his death at his home in Granger; the wire obituary said South Bend, and the local paper's geography is printed here.

Sources:

1. Indiana University South Bend, Aspire News (January 2017) — the 1991 Martin Endowed Professorship, the first endowed piano chair at any IU campus, the Lee and Geraldine Martin gift, the retirement after 25 years, and the Martin Family Fellowship Piano Residencies under a selection committee.
2. Toradze Piano Studio and competition record — Tbilisi birth (May 30, 1952), Moscow Conservatory 1978, the 1977 Van Cliburn silver medal, the 1983 Madrid defection, the ensemble's New York 2002–03 Bach and Scriabin cycles, and the Salzburg, Proms, Edinburgh, Ravinia, and Ruhr appearances.
3. South Bend Tribune obituary (republished June 2, 2022) — death May 11, 2022, aged 69, at his home in Granger; Governor's Arts Award 2012; South Bend Community Hall of Fame 2014.