Executive and Artistic Director of Musica Reginae Productions

A native of New York, pianist and teaching artist Barbara Podgurski holds a DMA in piano performance from The Graduate Center (CUNY) as well as a BM in piano performance and an MM in both piano performance and music theory from the Mannes College of Music. Dr. Podgurski has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Europe, including a number of performances at Carnegie Hall. She has been featured in television and radio broadcasts which include appearances on WQXR, WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, NPR, WPLN, WQED and numerous others. Dr. Podgurski was featured on a television documentary for NHK in Japan with her touring partner violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn and the famed “Red” Mendelssohn Stradivarius. She was also a past special guest performing for the National Association of Broadcasters with Grammy-nominated violinist Jenny Oaks Baker and was invited with her colleagues to perform at a private ceremony for Pope Francis and members of the United Nations in an interfaith prayer service during the last Papal visit to NYC.

A former faculty member at The Mannes College of Music, Hunter College and Mercy College, she is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BMCC (CUNY), Staff Pianist for the Strings Department at NYU, and is on the faculty of the RiverArts Music Program in Hudson Valley. Barbara is a consultant for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs as well as for the Board of Education in both NYC and NYS. By invitation in 2014, Dr. Podgurski became a Steinway Teaching Artist. She has performed with rock band Evanescence on their 2017/18 Synthesis Tour and with legendary vocal group Il Divo on their 2019 “Timeless” Tour and 2022 Greatest Hits Tour. Barbara recently completed a project with Alison Cook Beatty modern ballet company in NYC, performing Bartok 2nd Sonata for Piano and Violin and Shostakovich Preludes live on stage during performance. Barbara is currently a contributing writer to Cambridge’s Nineteenth Century Music and has been an Arts Commissioner Advisor for the Queens Council on the Arts and is Chief Advisor on the advisory board of NY Sound Circuit. Barbara is the organist and music director at Trinity St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maspeth, Queens. Barbara is featured in a documentary titled “A Taste of Chamber Music” which will be released in Spring 2026 on PBS.org and allarts.org. Barbara is the Associate Director of KIISS – The Krakauer Institute for Intensive Summer Study in Vaison-la-Romaine, France. Barbara is the Assistant to the Conductor and pianist for The Oratorio Society of Queens.