Meet Ana Maria Otamendi and Elena Lacheva

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ana Maria Otamendi and Elena Lacheva and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Ana María is Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano at Louisiana State University, and Artistic Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute, and Elena is Professional in Residence at LSU, and Program Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute

Hi Ana Maria & Elena, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?

Since there isn’t a single summer program in the United States that is devoted exclusively to this highly specialized field, we created the Collaborative Piano Institute, currently graciously hosted by Louisiana State University, to put the spotlight on the needs of the next generation of inspiring collaborative pianists. The goal of the program is to further encourage the passion for partnership by providing guidance, rare insider’s information, and the support of distinguished, as well as emerging artists in the field.

Within the past twenty years, more and more schools throughout the country began offering a higher education degree in Collaborative Piano, but many of them focus on developing only one or two particular aspects of the musical partnership: strong instrumental ensemble skills, or skills needed for opera rehearsals, or art song and vocal coaching, or ballet repertoire. It is often difficult for young pianists to pinpoint a program that encourages and delves into all the various aspects of the collaborative piano field.

Summer music training programs often need pianists for opera, choir, ballet productions, and general accompanying, and many offer repertoire classes, in addition to experience or exposure in high stakes events. But anyone who has ever been thrown in a situation for which they’re not prepared can relate to the stress and disappointment a young pianist might experience when not given specific instruction or individual attention, while being expected to deliver polished, professional work.

Seeing the need for a program that supplies the knowledge required, we built a three-week long summer festival that has taken place every June since 2017. Having spent three lovely summers at the Shattuck – St. Mary’s School in Faribault, Minnesota, and the excruciating and exhilarating June of 2020 completely online, we are proud to be hosted by Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana since June 2021.

Through the years we have proudly welcomed legendary performers and pedagogues alongside emerging professionals to our faculty roster.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

The Collaborative Piano Institute (which is also a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization) is a unique summer festival since, to our knowledge, there aren’t any other summer programs in the US or the world that are completely devoted and organized around the needs of collaborative pianists. Our reviews are overwhelmingly positive, as you can see in our website: https://www.collaborativepianoinstitute.org/testimonials/

Our alumni are accepted into the best graduate programs in the country (The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, The University of Michigan, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, etc), as well as in Young Artist Programs at prestigious opera houses (MET, Houston Grand Opera, Merola Opera Program, etc). They enter the field in institutions like Yale University, perform in famous venues like Weill Recital Hall and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, and even record for Holywood blockbusters. We wholeheartedly believe that we offer extremely high quality instruction, and that we open the horizons of our participants by offering them masterclasses, lectures, workshops, discussions, and recitals that revolve around every theme related to collaborative piano.

We are extremely proud of the quality of the faculty we have invited over the years: we truly bring the best collaborative pianists in the world, who teach/work at the most prestigious institutions:

Anne Epperson (Director of the Collaborative Piano Program at Indiana University)
Rita Sloan (Artist faculty and Founder of the Collaborative Piano Program, Aspen Music Festival; Director of Collaborative Piano, University of Maryland)
Martin Katz (Earl V. Moore Collegiate Professor in Music at the University of Michigan; SongFest, Merola Opera Program, Music Academy of the West)
Jonathan Feldman (Professor of Collaborative Piano, the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory; Music Academy of the West)
Warren Jones (Professor of Collaborative Piano, Manhattan School of Music; Music Academy of the West, SongFest)
Kathleen Kelly (Associate Professor at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; former Director of Musical Studies at the Vienna Staatsoper; former Head of Music/Music Director at Houston Grand Opera)
Howard Watkins (Assistant Conductor at the MET; Music Coach at the Juilliard School; currently Presidential Visiting Fellow at Yale)
Marie-France Lefebvre (Professor of Opera/Voice Coaching, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; guest pianist, coach and conductor Cincinnati Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Wolf Trap, Santa Fe Opera)
Timothy Lovelace (Professor of Collaborative Piano and Coaching, University of Minnesota; Ravinia Music Festival)
Elena Abend (Professor of Piano, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Christopher Turbessi (Lecturer at Shepherd School of Music, Rice University; freelance vocal coach and conductor; Wolftrap Opera Program)
Elvia Puccinelli (Professor of Collaborative Piano and Vocal Coaching at University of North Texas School of Music; Founder and President of the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society and CollabFest; OperaWorks, Fall Island, Opera Lucca)
Colette Valentine (Associate Professor Of Collaborative Piano at Butler School of Music, UT Austin)
Matthew Brower (Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano, Washington College; Director of the Collaborative Piano Program, University of Delaware’s (UD); Master Players Summer Festival)
Elena Lacheva (Professional in Residence, Louisiana State University)
Ana Maria Otamendi (Director of Collaborative Piano, Louisiana State University)

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In Baton Rouge we would take them to the downtown area: a walk on the levee, then to see The Old State Capitol – a whimsical castle with a gorgeous stained glass ceiling. The downtown River Center library branch and the The Shaw Center for the Arts have beautiful views towards the Mississippi river (Tsunami Sushi for happy hour at sunset on the last floor of the Shaw Center is a must!), and also host a myriad of art events, theater and musical performances. Quirky Spanish Town neighborhood and Beauregard Town offer a glimpse of Baton Rouge’s past. The Burden Museum & Gardens is a whole-day experience, with its wooded hiking trails, colorful rose and camelia gardens, on-site Rural Life Museum, the Botanic and Windrush gardens, which change colors every season, and the option to buy giant jars of delicious honey made by the Burden Garden bees. A stroll through the oak-shaded LSU campus is a must, of course, and at its edge sits The Chimes restaurant, which is an institution! We won’t miss going to Coffee Call for beignets, both square and finger-shaped, and wear a shirt that can take a dusting of powdered sugar! For an update of this beloved classic, we might go downtown, to The Vintage, where they fill their beignets with various creams according to the season (peppermint and s’mores were delicious back in December).

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Wonderful soprano Jennifer and violinist Eric Olson, our dear friends and cherished colleagues, for believing in our vision, and in us when CPI was barely a dream. They made the launch of CPI possible, since they hosted us at the Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Minnesota in 2017 for the first time, and for the two following years.

We must express our gratitude to our wonderful faculty who year after year come to join us in this wild adventure! Also to give many thanks to the numerous CPI participants and alumni, who make this experience an exhilirating ride! Of course, we are beyond grateful to our friends, and generous supporters: John G. Turner and Jerry G. Fischer, Roxanne Cargill and Peter Weston, Lucila and William Haase, Nancy Wynne Mattison, Patricia Raftery, Kathy Moore & Steve Homer, Robert and Mary Jane Wakefield. In Baton Rouge, we wouldn’t be able to offer the CPI experience to so many participants and faculty members without the help of our Baton Rouge hosts Anne and Andrew Maverick, Janice and William Grimes, Ching Song, and Warren Fraser; or without the beautiful facilities of the LSU School of Music, who welcome the nearly 100 people descending upon it for three weeks in June with warm hospitality!

Website: collaborativepianoinstitute.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collaborativepianoinstitute/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/collaborativepianoinstitute

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIXE3F8_AYmNm1SqvL9ry2w

Image Credits
Otamendi/Lacheva photo: picture credit Simon Pauly Logo design: Danielle Wojcik Other photos: Yeon-Kyung Kim