Ana Maria Otamendi
Venezuelan artist Ana María Otamendi has forged a diverse career as a vocal coach, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, recording artist, pedagogue, entrepreneur, and conductor. She co-founded and serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute, one of the most sought-after summer programs for collaborative pianists worldwide. The institute boasts renowned faculty such as Rita Sloan, Warren Jones, Anne Epperson, Martin Katz, Kathleen Kelly, Marie-France Lefebvre, Howard Watkins, and others.
Ana María is founding member and pianist of several ensembles: the Aelia Duo (with pianist Elena Lacheva), the Hall/Otamendi Duo (with trumpet virtuoso Ashley Hall), and the Reverón Piano Trio, a Venezuelan ensemble dedicated to the repertoire of standard, modern, and Latin American piano trios, managed by Halac Artists – Meluk Kulturmanagement. Her recordings of Latin American chamber music and songs, released by IBS Classical and Centaur Records, have garnered widespread acclaim. Ana María has recorded and plans to release four more albums with Mark Records, Reference Recordings, Rezurrection Recordz, and Urtext Records in 2025.
Ana María’s interests range from Neuroscience and Psychology applied to learning and practicing an instrument, to Latin American art song and chamber music. She has presented lectures and workshops about these topics around the world, including Cambridge University, Yale University, Wolf Trap Opera, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, Aspen Music Festival, Universidade de São Paulo, the International Keyboard Collaborative Artists Conference, SphinxConnect Conference, and many more. She teaches a class in which she helps students improve their overall approach to learning and practicing by understanding the latest psychological, neurological, and pedagogical research on the science of learning. Besides her musical training, Ana María is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Italian, and also a Geophysical Engineer. Her thesis was published in the prestigious journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors.
Since her orchestral debut at age twelve, Ana María Otamendi has performed as soloist, collaborative pianist, and conductor with renowned orchestras and at important venues such as Chicago Symphony Hall, Spivey Hall, Festival Casals, Teatro Teresa Carreño (Caracas, Venezuela), Salzburg Domesaal, Megaron Mousikis Concert Hall (Athens), Parco della Musica (Rome), Teatro Arcimboldi (Milano), Teatro Odeum (Patras), as well as many other venues in Austria, Panama, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, United States, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Over 500 collaborative performances with renowned artists such as Ashley Hall, Donald Sinta, Michelle DeYoung, Paul Groves, Ana María Martinez, Alexis Cárdenas, members of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, Pittsburgh Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, and many more.
She holds a Master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Wisconsin, an Artist Certificate from the University of South Carolina where she worked with the renowned pianist Marina Lomazov, and a Doctorate in Collaborative Piano from the University of Michigan, where she studied with world-class collaborative pianist Martin Katz. After finishing her tenure as Studio Artist at the prestigious Houston Grand Opera Studio, as well as the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera, she became the Head Vocal Coach of the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston. She served as Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano at Louisiana State University from 2017 to 2024, where she created the doctoral program, and currently, she is the Associate Professor and Head of the Collaborative Piano Program at the University of Michigan.
Elena Lacheva
Bulgarian-born Ms. Lacheva is the General Director and Co-Creator of the Collaborative Piano Institute – the premier summer program for current and potential collaborative pianists, singers, instrumentalists, and composers. In August 2024 she joined the piano faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance, following her appointment as a Professional-in-Residence at at Louisiana State University, and her work as a vocal coach and repetiteur for the New Orleans Opera, Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston, Opera in the Heights, and the Houston Grand Opera, where she was a Studio Artist. A member of the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society (IKCAS), Ms. Lacheva was a presenter at CollabFest 2020, the Society’s annual conference.
A highly sought-after coach and collaborative pianist, Ms. Lacheva also appears as a clinician, most recently at the University of North Texas and the Piracicaba International Piano Festival. Upcoming engagements include a residency at Cornell University and Oklahoma Music Teachers Association State Conference 2025, among others.
Professor Lacheva is a member of the Aelia Piano Duo, performing repertoire from Mozart to Gabriela Lena Frank, and has been engaged in numerous vocal, instrumental, and chamber music performances for over 20 years. Most recently, she was featured on Chamber Music Amarillo’s Season Opener, and had the pleasure to perform her first Schubert’s Winterreise with tenor Paul Groves for Lyrica Baroque. Ms. Lacheva has performed internationally in Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, the United States, and Iceland, and maintains an active recital schedule.
After completing her collaborative piano studies with Martin Katz at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance in 2012, Ms. Lacheva was an apprentice coach at the Merola Program at the San Francisco Opera Center, following a summer as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center.