Sergei Vladimirovich Tarnovsky (1882-1976) was a Soviet Ukrainian and American pianist and music teacher.
He graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatoire in the class of Anna Esipova. He toured various European countries as a soloist with conductor Vasily Safonov. He has also performed as an accompanist with violinist Nathan Milstein and singer Maria Kurenko.
Tarnovsky's teaching career lasted over 60 years. He taught in Odesa, then became a professor at the Kyiv Conservatory - in Kyiv, his students included Volodymyr Horowitz and Oleksandr Yunynskyi. In 1928, he emigrated to Paris, and in 1930, he settled in the United States. He taught in Los Angeles, where among his students was, for example, Horacio Gutierrez. Among Tarnowsky's last students in the mid-1970s was Madeline Stowe, who, after Tarnowsky's death, gave up her musical career and pursued acting instead.
