Born in Siberia, Luba Poliak made her debut playing Mozart concerto with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eleven. In 1990, she immigrated to Israel, where she continued her studies and graduated magna cum laude from the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv. She studied in Brussels and earned her master’s degree with honors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Ms. Poliak completed her doctorate in 2008 at Stony Brook University, where she worked and coached with Gilbert Kalish, Pamela Frank, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, and members of The Emerson String Quartet. After winning the Stony Brook Concerto Competition in 2004, Ms. Poliak performed with the Stony Brook Symphony, conducted by David Stern. The same year her performances at the Sydney competition were aired on ABC Classic FM in Australia.

Luba Poliak has been performing solo and chamber music recitals across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia at the venues such as Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, Belgium; Jordan Hall, Boston; Dame Myra Hess Concert Memorial Series, Chicago, IL; 92nd Street Y and Harvard Club, New York City; Bulgarian Embassy, Washington D.C.; Dudley Hall, Houston; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Ms. Poliak has received numerous grants from the America Israel Cultural Foundation and was a fellow at such music festivals as Aspen, Colorado, Verbier, Switzerland, and the exclusive “German for Singers and Vocal Coaches” program at Middlebury College, Vermont.

Dedicated to the music education of the younger generation, Ms. Poliak was invited to give master classes and lecture-recitals at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, the University of Houston, and Lehman College in New York. During fall 2010, and spring 2013 semesters, Ms. Poliak served as a full-time visiting piano faculty at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. She was invited again for an intensive weekend of a solo recital, a technique workshop, and a master class in the fall of 2013. Luba Poliak teaches and performs regularly at such festivals as the Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston, Heifetz Music Festival, Bowdoin Festival, and Bard College Piano Camp. In addition to being on the faculty of the Bard Conservatory Preparatory division, Ms. Poliak is also a piano faculty at the 92nd Street Y school of music in New York and a chamber music coach at the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program.