After graduating from the Moscow Ippolitov-Ivanov Music College she entered the Nizhny Novgorod Glinka Conservatory to study with I. Kats (1968).
From 1969 to 1973 she studied at the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (class of Professor T. D. Gutman and E. M. Slavinskaya – collaborative piano). In 1986 she completed the assistant traineeship in collaborative piano.
From 1985 to 1992 she served as Academic Secretary of the Council of the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute.
In 2006 T. V. Kandinskaya was awarded the title «Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation».
Over thirty-eight years of teaching she has trained more than two hundred pianists (bachelor’s, master’s and assistant-trainees), many of whom work in Russian and foreign music institutions, philharmonic societies and opera houses.
More than twenty graduates of T. V. Kandinskaya’s class have become laureates of All-Russian and international competitions in the nomination «The Art of Accompaniment», including N. Kotnova, S. Deldina, E. Grinevich and others.
T. V. Kandinskaya has repeatedly served on juries in the nomination «The Art of Accompaniment» at All-Russian and international competitions such as «Musica Classica» in Ruza, the International Piano Competition in Tianjin (China) and «Talents of the New Century» in Odessa, Yekaterinburg and Moscow.
T. V. Kandinskaya has published a number of articles devoted to the work of N. I. Peiko, G. V. Sviridov, S. V. Rachmaninoff and E. M. Slavinskaya, including:
- T. Kandinskaya, «Five Romances to Poems by A. Blok by N. Peiko and Problems of Performing this Cycle», in: Collection of Scholarly Papers of the Leningrad Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory «On the Art of the Ensemble Player», Leningrad, 1986;
- T. Kandinskaya, «On the Role of Bell Sonorities in G. V. Sviridov’s Poem “Russia, Departing” to Poems by S. Yesenin», in: «Chamber Ensemble Music at the Higher School», teaching manual for the course «Methods of Teaching Chamber Ensemble», part 2, Moscow, 1990;
- T. Kandinskaya, «The Romances op. 38 by S. V. Rachmaninoff and Some Aspects of Their Interpretation», in: Musical Culture of the 20th Century. Searches. Achievements. Prospects, vol. 2, proceedings of the International Scholarly and Practical Conference, Magnitogorsk, 2009;
- T. Kandinskaya, «On the Teacher, Conductor and Accompanist Evgenia Mikhailovna Slavinskaya», in: «Gnesin Pedagogical Schools: History and Modernity» (prepared for publication, submitted to the press on 1 February 2018).
In 2014 the label «Melodiya» reissued on CD the 1990 recording of romances by A. Alyabyev made together with E. I. Sheveleva.
T. V. Kandinskaya successfully combines teaching with concert activity. Among her partners are international competition laureates E. Ol’khovskaya, V. Shkitskaya and N. Kotnova (piano duo). She has previously collaborated fruitfully with People’s Artist of Russia Nadezhda Krasnaya and Honoured Artists of Russia Evgenia Sheveleva and Galina Simkina.
T. V. Kandinskaya regularly gives lectures and masterclasses at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, on professional development courses for teachers of children’s music and art schools in the Moscow Region (Reutov, Elektrostal – A. N. Scriabin Moscow Regional Music College), in Nizhny Novgorod, as well as abroad in Japan.
She plays an active role in the cultural and educational project of the Collaborative Piano Department «Gnesin Public Philharmonic», preparing students and performing in its concert programmes.
