Since her orchestral debut at age twelve, Venezuelan pianist Ana María Otamendi has performed as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and conductor with renowned orchestras and at important venues such as Chicago Symphony Hall, Spivey Hall, Teatro Teresa Carreño (Caracas, Venezuela), Salzburg Domesaal, Centro de Bellas Artes, Luis A. Ferré (Puerto Rico), Megaron Mousikis Concert Hall (Athens), Parco de la musica (Rome), Teatro Arcimboldi (Milano), Teatro Odeum (Patras), as well as many other venues in Austria, Panama, Brazil, Venezuela, the United States, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Over 300 collaborative performances with renowned artists such as 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 has won 1st prize at all the major piano competitions in her home country, and recently she was the winner of the Emerging Artist Award from the University of Michigan, as an artist who has greatly contributed to the profession, as well as the Rising Faculty Award from Louisiana State University.
After finishing her two-year 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. Currently, she is the Janice Harvey Pellar Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano at Louisiana State University, where she is the head of the collaborative piano program. She is the Co-Artistic Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute, as well as pianist in the Aelia Duo (with pianist Elena Lacheva). She is a founding member of the Reverón Piano Trio (a Venezuelan ensemble devoted to the standard, modern, and Latin American piano trio repertoire), managed in the United States by Meluk Kulturmanagement and in Latin America and Europe in society Halac Artists – Meluk Kulturmanagement. She is also the pianist of the Four Corners Ensemble, a group dedicated to cultivate diversity and international collaboration by creating and performing contemporary music with musicians from different cultures, exploring new compositions, and bringing high-quality concert experiences to a variety of communities around the globe
She is a regular guest artist, guest speaker, and teacher at different Universities in the United States and abroad such as the University of Michigan, Cambridge University, Universidade de Sao Paulo and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), Mahidol University (Thailand), University of Minnesota, University of Texas at Austin, the University of South Carolina, and many more. Ana María holds a Master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Wisconsin, an Artist Certificate from the University of South Carolina, and a Doctorate in collaborative piano from the University of Michigan, where she studied with renowned pianist Martin Katz.
She was principal keyboard of the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra (2007–08) as well as Assistant Professor at the University of Musical Studies in Caracas. 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.
