The "Lioness in the velvet gloves" and "Queen of the Piano" were the epithets used to describe Tamara Poddubnaya at one of her first performances outside of then just starting to crumble Soviet Union in Italy. Her concerts continued to be frequented with standing ovations and multiple encores ever since. In one of the recent reviews of her concerts, Portland Press Herald critic wrote: ".. I haven't heard the Bach Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue [..] played that way since Rubinstein".

Tamara Poddubnaya studied with Boris Lysenko and Irina Kugucheva at the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, where she received her doctorate with distinction in 1976.

Over the last ten years, Dr. Poddubnaya had performed in no less then ten countries in venues including the Small Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Steinway Museum. She had also helped set up, organize and revitalize a number of music competitions and festivals in Russia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the United States. She has been on the faculty of Prins Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands since 2003, as well as Artist in Residence at the Long Island
Conservatory and Portland Conservatory of Music.

In full command of a vast piano and harpsichord repertoire, she is much in demand as a soloist and chamber music performer, and frequently serves on juries at various international piano competitions in the United States, Russia, Bulgaria and Holland. In 2005 she had received the Golden Muse and the St. Sofia awards in Bulgaria.