Pianist Lara Saldanha has been praised for her versatility, fresh programming, and communicative gifts as both a performer and teacher. Lara is equally at home as a soloist and collaborator in the worlds of new music, standard repertoire, and historical performance. Lara did significant research and performances in all three areas during her doctoral work at Stony Brook University, which she completed in 2023.

As a new music performer, Lara has been fortunate enough to work with composers Joan Tower, Vijay Iyer, David Fulmer, Eleonor Sandresky, and Huang Ruo, among others on performances of their works. Lara was the principal pianist of the Mannes American Composers’ Ensemble from 2018-2020, appeared with the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players in 2020-2021, played the New York premiere of Kt Allenbaugh’s Cancer and Capricorn for the Leschetitzky Association in 2022, and premiered two other works by Allenbaugh over 2020-2023. During the pandemic, Lara did significant research on the prepared piano works of John Cage, giving a complete livestreamed performance of the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano in December 2020 from her living room and a live performance of Three Dances in 2022.

In 2023, Lara was invited to play at the Rites of Spring Festival in North Fork, NY; MusicIC Festival in Iowa City; Icicle Creek in Leavenworth, WA; National Federation of Music Clubs Convention in Norfolk, VA; and the Valley Cottage Library Young Masters Series in upstate NY, among others. Past performance highlights include appearances at the German Consulate, Bohemian National Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and World Trade Center. In 2024, Lara will appear as a soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Kollective366, and she soloed with the Texas Festival Orchestra in Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals in 2018. In 2017-2018, Lara completed two concert tours in India, performing at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, Kala Academy and Menezes Braganza in Goa, and for the Pune Music Society. Lara looks forward to being in the inaugural class of Cincinnati Song Initiative’s Fellowship of the Song in May 2024.

As a historical performer, Lara has been fortunate to study harpsichord with Arthur Haas and fortepiano with Audrey Axinn and Yi-Heng Yang. She was part of the Mannes Baroque Players from 2016-2018, studied at the Virginia Baroque Academy in 2022, and performed in a masterclass at the DiMena Center for Steven Lubin in 2019. Lara played a complete recital on fortepiano and harpsichord in 2022 of works by Marianne Martines, C.P.E. Bach, Clementi, J.S. Bach, Manuel Ponce, and Boccherini.

Lara is a committed music educator; she has been awarded Teaching Assistantships at both Stony Brook and Mannes and has a thriving studio of around 25 students in New York City. Lara is passionate about making concerts accessible to all, and frequently gives lecture-recitals at community centers, schools, and homes. She has been a frequent performer at Groupmuse house concerts since 2016 and DOROT since 2018. Lara’s teachers include Christina Dahl at Stony Brook, Vladimir Valjarevic at Mannes (P.D.P.L. and M.M), Alan Chow at Northwestern (B.M./B.A.), Serguei Milstein at the Geneva Conservatory of Music in Switzerland, Inna Terekhov, and Neya Korsantia.