Elena Lacheva, Program Director

Newly appointed to the Professional-in-Residence position at Louisiana State University, Ms. Lacheva continues to serve as the Program Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute – the summer program for current and potential collaborative pianists she co-created. In 2019, Ms. Lacheva joined the New Orleans Opera production team for Rigoletto and Carmen, and will return in 2020 for Charlie Parker’s Yardbird by Schnyder. 

Before joining the LSU faculty in 2017, Ms. Lacheva held a vocal coaching position with the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston, and assisted with several productions at Opera in the Heights. 

As a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, she was involved in the rehearsal process and performances of Wagner’sDas Rheingold, Weinberg’s The Passenger (in Houston, and at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York) among others, and performed extensively with the Studio singers in recitals in Texas and Louisiana.

Ms. Lacheva completed her collaborative piano studies with Martin Katz at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance in 2012 and that summer she was an apprentice coach in the Merola Program at the San Francisco Opera Center. The previous summer she was a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center where she helped prepare Stravinsky’s Renard for the Mark Morris Dance Group.

Ms. Lacheva has performed internationally as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and a member of the Aelia Piano Duo in Vienna, Orvieto, Prague, Berlin, and Reykjavík, and maintains an active recital schedule.