Sonia Vlahcevic

Professor of Piano and Music Analysis

Department of Music

Contact Info

Courses taught include: Form and Analysis I, II, Music Since 1945, Beethoven/Brahms symphonies, 20th Century Compositional Techniques, Russian Ballets of Igor Stravinsky, Prokofiev and his works, Analysis for Performance, Advanced Atonal Aural Skills V, Broadway Musicals and today’s society.

Dr. Sonia Vlahcevic is a Professor of Piano and Music Analysis at VCU. Before coming to VCUarts, Vlahcevic held faculty appointments at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she taught theory at the college level, and at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

In addition to teaching at VCU, Sonia Vlahcevic is involved with the Richmond Music Teachers Association (RMTA). Through the RMTA, Vlahcevic created the Vlahcevic Contemporary Music Festival. She held workshops for the teachers, exposing them to repertoire as well as teaching techniques for 20th-21st century music. Student applicants for the festival were to learn, understand and memorize a contemporary piece. The Festival date was set for December 4, 2021 whereby all the students who applied were placed on the program to perform without the expectation of competition or evaluation. It was meant to highlight the skills of the students and to celebrate their growth as musicians. Eighteen students performed and some even composed their own compositions for the event. Due to its success, the Festival will be repeated!

Vlahcevic has represented VCU at numerous international venues for the past 20 years. Through The College Music Society, she has given lecture-recital performances in Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, Argentina, Croatia, South Korea, Sweden, Australia and Hawaii as well as venues in the United States.

Dr. Vlahcevic’s areas of research expertise and interest include: contemporary music compositions for the piano, lectures regarding how (and why) to perform these new pianistic techniques. Her research in piano has been influenced by Zbigniew Dziewiecki at the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland, and her research in theory by Dr. George Thaddeus Jones at The Catholic University in Washington D.C.

Dr. Vlahcevic received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Music Theory from the Catholic University of America. She also holds a Masters in Piano Pedagogy and a Bachelor of Music with a concentration in Piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.