Vestavia Hills alumna carries on family tradition as pianist, teacher

Dina Kasman grew up surrounded by pianists.

Her father, Yakov, is a distinguished professor of piano and artist-in-residence at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her sister, Sasha, is a pianist, has degrees from both UAB and The Juilliard School and is pursuing a doctorate in music at the University of Michigan. Her mother also plays and teaches and has previously been named Alabama’s Music Teacher of the Year.

So, it wasn’t surprising when Dina took up piano herself, learning, as her sister had, from her father. Piano, she said, is a passion.

“Being surrounded by music, it was impossible not to fall in love with it,” Dina said.

Her father said when something is “yours,” you love it. For those who love piano, it presents a lot of creative possibilities for the musician, he said. “It’s an orchestra under your fingers.”

Dina said piano is a way for her to express her emotions. “To get to do it through very beautiful music was like killing two birds with one stone,” she said.

Now, as she continues her studies at UAB, Dina has found success both in competitions and as a teacher, as she is following in her father’s footsteps and teaching others how to play piano.

“It’s been amazing,” she said. “I think because I watched my parents teach for so long, I wanted to pass ideas to other people.”

She also recently won first prize in the 2021 Gulf Coast Steinway Society Collegiate Piano Solo Competition, which she said was “unreal” because she got to compete in person — something she wasn’t able to do for a while due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The competition was in Mobile, and Dina said she learned how much she missed playing in person and that the competition reminded her that life would one day be normal again.

“You never know how much you love something until you lose it,” she said. “It felt unreal but also made me feel so much hope.”

Dina has won many competitions and also performs as a soloist, something she began doing at the age of 13. She has performed with the orchestra of the Southern Adventist University and twice with the National Symphony of Ukraine, playing concertos by Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninoff.

Dina isn’t the only one racking up the awards, though. Her students have also won prizes at local, state and regional competitions.

A 2018 graduate of Vestavia Hills High School, Dina said she enjoyed her time in the school system and learned much from it.

“I had many teachers who deeply influenced who I am now as a person,” she said. “My former French teacher, Mrs. Casey Harlan, was always one of my biggest fans at school. Her passion for teaching, love for her students and relentless desire to help was always inspiring.”

Music isn’t easy, Dina said. It’s a tough world where musicians are tempted to make comparisons to others and challenged at various competitions. But it’s important to forget about that and focus on her growth and what she needs to do to improve, she said.

“If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it 300%,” Dina said.

That work ethic pays off after a good performance, she said. “I love walking away form a performance knowing I poured it all out on the stage,” she said. “It’s very exhilarating.”

Being able to learn from her family is also key, Dina said.

“It’s very cool,” she said. “It’s really awesome to be able to share ideas.”

Having a family full of pianists is like having an “infinite support system,” she said. Her dad said it’s been great to watch his daughters grow and enjoy piano.

“Family tradition is a wonderful thing,” Yakov said.

Yakov has been teaching at UAB for almost 20 years and said he’s had many wonderful moments. His wife, Tatiana, said she started, like the rest of her family, learning piano from an early age — around 5 or 6 years old — when she was growing up in Russia. After coming to the United States, she began teaching and now teaches some students at UAB and some outside the university, she said.

Yakov said he’s proud of his daughters because he knows how difficult piano can be. “It’s a lot of hard work,” he said. “From a professor’s view, I’m very pleased. They’re wonderful kids.”

In addition to her parents, Dina also learned from Sasha, who said it would have been more “unnatural” for her to not take up music.

“When I could sit up at the piano, I started to press keys and pick out melodies by ear,” Sasha said.

Sasha said, like her sister, she learned a lot from her parents and has been honored to share the stage with her father. Sasha said she’s proud of Dina, who has a “boatload of natural talent.”

“Even when she was 5 years old, she was already playing with a combination of accuracy and enthusiasm that was advanced beyond her years,” Sasha said.

Dina said her next steps include graduating from UAB and, like Sasha, obtaining both a master’s degree and a doctorate degree.

In addition to hopefully helping create festivals and competitions, Dina said she wants to continue to follow in her father’s footsteps in another way. “I want to be a professor like my dad.”