26-year-old Alabama native pianist Dina Kasman returns as a soloist with the Alabama Symphony for a third time following performances of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s rarely-heard Piano Concerto No. 3 in the 2025-26 ASO Masterworks Series. Born into a musical family in Huntsville, Dina grew up in Vestavia Hills and studied piano with her father Yakov Kasman at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She went on to earn her master’s degree with Norman Krieger at Indiana University and is pursuing her doctorate at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of Boris Slutsky. Currently based in Baltimore, Dina is gaining recognition nationwide as a versatile performer, teacher, and arts leader.
Since her soloist debut with orchestra as a teenager, Dina added seventeen piano concertos to her repertoire and has performed Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Southern Adventist University Symphony Orchestra, and the Jacobs School of Music Concert Orchestra at Indiana University. A natural collaborator, Dina has performed with such prominent musicians as Tim Noble, Johnathan Carney, Dariusz Skoraczewski, and Daniel Gilbert. She has toured extensively in piano duo with her father Yakov Kasman, with appearances including Colorado State University’s Piano Series and the Mississippi Music Teachers Association State Conference. Dina’s advocacy for new music has led to her recording a film score by Emmy Award-nominated Alabama composer Eli Denson and premiering Ahmed Karam’s Piano Concerto “Sorceress” (written for Dina) with the Peabody Conductors’ Orchestra, in addition to premiering works by living composers Erin Blake, Yoonjae Choi, Jacob Cuffman, and Woodrow Murray. Dina was recently awarded first prizes in the Florida Young Artist International Competition and the Indiana MTNA Young Artist Competition; her ensemble Apassionato Quintet was a national finalist of the MTNA Chamber Music Competition. Upcoming engagements include solo and chamber performances in Florida, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
An active teacher since 2015, Dina is adjunct piano faculty at the Peabody Conservatory, Peabody Preparatory, and the Gilman School in Baltimore. During the summer, she enjoys performing and teaching pre-college piano and composition at the annual Utah State University Summer Piano Festival. She has adjudicated piano competitions including Georgia MTNA and Peabody Preparatory Honors and served on the Young Jury of the 2022 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition.
Beyond the stage and studio, Dina is a talented arts leader with an education in business administration and a background in theater and visual arts. She oversees Artistic Operations at the Vivace International Summer Music Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina, and was a past associate of the Southeastern Piano Festival in Columbia, South Carolina. In 2025 together with Tony Foreman and soprano Shelby R. Tipling, Dina co-founded Cinghiale Baltimore’s popular monthly Opera Salon Series, pairing “world-class opera performances with fine Italian dining.” In her free time, she enjoys attending symphony and opera performances, museum-going, and writing poetry.