Ana Maria Otamendi
Artistic Director
Since her orchestral debut at age twelve, 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, Megaron Mousikis Concert Hall (Athens), Parco de la musica (Rome), Teatro Arcimboldi (Milano), Teatro Odeum (Patras), as well as 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 Maria Martinez, Alexis Cárdenas, members of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, Philadelphia
Orchestra, Pittsburgh Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and many more. A former Studio Artist at the prestigious Houston Grand Opera Studio and 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 Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at Louisiana State University, where she is the head of the collaborative piano program. She is the Artistic Director of the Collaborative Piano Institute, pianist and founding member of the Reverón Piano Trio (a Venezuelan ensemble devoted to the standard, modern, and Latin American piano trio repertoire), and the Aelia Duo (with pianist Elena Lacheva).
Ana Maria 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.
Elena Lacheva
Program Director
Newly appointed to the Professional-in-Residence position at Louisiana State University, Elena Lacheva is the co-founder and Program Director of the Collaborative Piano Summer Institute.
In 2019, Ms. Lacheva joined the New Orleans Opera production team for Rigoletto and Carmen.
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’s Das 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.
Amy Petrongelli
Vocal Academy Director
Soprano Amy Petrongelli revels in performing music of all different periods and styles. Lauded in the New York Times for her “admirable fluidity,” Amy has cultivated a diverse solo performance career, encompassing music from Haydn’s Creation in Carnegie Hall to Berio’s Sequenza III at the Radio Nacional Córdoba in Argentina. In 2020, Amy was honored with an Emerging Artist Award from the University of Michigan for her significant contributions to the field of music performance. An advocate for new music, Amy frequently works with living composers bringing to life new works for the voice. She has premiered new works for organizations such as the Houston Grand Opera, New American Voices, and AEPEX Contemporary Performance.
Recent collaborations and premieres include works by Laura Kaminsky, Christopher Cerrone, Juliana Hall, Shawn Crouch, Evan Ware, and Carolina Heredia. Amy has also had the opportunity to performed with members of leading contemporary ensembles such as Eighth Blackbird, the Metropolis Ensemble, Latitude 49, and Bent Frequency. In partnership with pianist Clare Longendyke, Amy helped to establish the Music in Bloom Festival in 2018. Music in Bloom is an annual 3-day chamber music festival in Indianapolis, IN, focused on promoting the music and musicians of the 21st century.
Amy is also a founding member and co-artistic director of the Khemia Ensemble, a chamber ensemble dedicated to promoting contemporary classical music by cultivating collaborative mentorships, inclusive place-making, and authentic storytelling through immersive, multimedia performances. Now in its 6th season, Khemia has led artist residencies across both North and South America and has been featured on festivals such as Strange Beautiful Music, New Music Gathering, Moxsonix Festival, Latin IS America, and the Bienal Composición Córdoba. Khemia Ensemble is an ensemble-in-residence for the annual Mizzou International Composers Festival each summer, alongside Grammy-award winning ensemble Alarm Will Sound.
Amy’s commitment to musical collaboration has led her to fellowships at summer programs such as the Tanglewood Music Center, Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, New Music on the Point, and the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. She has also been a featured performer for organizations such as Five Boroughs Music Festival, the Casement Fund Recital Series, the Contemporary Undercurrent of Song Project, and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. Past operatic performances include include Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Amy in Little Women, Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. Amy has had the honor of working closely with artists such as Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, Lucy Shelton, Tony Arnold, Martin Katz, Kathleen Kelly, Alan Smith, and Timothy Cheek.
A passionate educator, Amy has taught at Eastern Michigan University, University of Akron, and Pennsylvania State University. She has been an artist in residence for the International Choral Conducting Symposium and has served on the voice faculty for the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Piobbico, Italy. Amy is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice at Baylor University in Waco, TX, where she can be found running, reading, and searching for the next great microbrew with her husband, Eric, and their rescue pup, Luna.
Simón Gollo
Collaborative Strings Institute Director
Recognized as a multifaceted and charismatic musician, Swiss-Venezuelan violinist Simón Gollo enjoys a successful international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. At the same time, he is a committed recording artist, artistic director, and pedagogue. Simón Gollo has appeared on countless stages across Europe, Asia, and the American continent from Canada to Chile.
His long career has led him to perform at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Cadogan Hall (London), the 92nd Street Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall (New York), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), Bolívar Hall (London), the Teatro Teresa Carreño (Caracas), the Auditorio Blas Galindo (Mexico City), the Auditorio Manuel de Falla (Granada), and the Teatro Mayor (Bogotá), and for renowned organizations such as the BBC Proms Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. He has collaborated in these performances with international figures such as Alessio Bax, Ricardo Morales, Dmitri Berlinsky, Monique Duphil, Edicson Ruiz, Paul Rosenthal, John Novacek, Alissa Margulis, Jakob Koranyi, Miguel da Silva (Ysaÿe Quartet), Richard Young (Vermeer Quartet), Randolph Kelly, and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, among many others.
As a soloist, Simón Gollo has performed the greatest violin concertos with prestigious orchestras such as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Filarmónica de Bogotá, Orquesta Sinfónica de Salta (Argentina), Central Ohio Symphony (USA), Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio (USA), and the Orquesta de Caxias do Sul (Brazil), under the baton of prominent conductors such as Conrad van Alphen, Theodore Kuchar, and Carlos Izcaray. He obtained the Fundación Cisneros 2012 scholarship to attend the Aspen Music Festival, where he took lessons from renowned professors Alex Kerr and Naoko Tanaka. He received his musical education in Switzerland under the tutelage of his mentors Anne Bauer, Gyula Stuller, Gabor Takacs and Patrick Genet.
From 2012 to 2019, Simón Gollo was a member of the Dalí String Quartet and La Catrina Quartet—ensembles specializing in Latin American music—participating in numerous successful tours and performances within and outside of the United States. His discography with La Catrina Quartet, which includes a Latin Grammy–nominated recording, is available on the RYCY Productions, Inc., and Summit Records labels. His passion for chamber orchestras led him to join the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York and to play leading roles in major festivals, tours, and concerts with other chamber orchestras such as the Camerata Nordica (Sweden), Post Classical Ensemble (Washington, DC), Dallas Chamber Symphony, and Classical Music Institute Chamber Orchestra (San Antonio). In January 2020 he was guest concertmaster for the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada under the baton of Michał Nesterowicz. Simón Gollo is currently a permanent member of the Reverón Piano Trio and guest first violinist of the Cuarteto Q-Arte, which tours, records, and performs throughout Colombia and Europe.
Simón Gollo is a gifted and committed pedagogue who keeps a very busy schedule teaching both violin and chamber music. He has served on the faculty of the Summit Music Festival in New York and regularly collaborates as a substitute professor at the Juilliard School Pre-College Division (class of Naoko Tanaka). For six years, he served as a violin professor at the internationally recognized and acclaimed program El Sistema and at the Mozarteum de Caracas, both in Venezuela. He is now an assistant professor of violin at New Mexico State University (NMSU), and he joins the faculty roster at the California Orchestra Institute in 2020.
Appointed conductor of the New Mexico State University Philharmonic in 2016, Simón Gollo has experienced extraordinary growth in this facet of his career that has not gone unnoticed. He has received numerous invitations to conduct both youth and professional orchestras in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela.
Simón Gollo is a recording artist for the international recording label IBS Classical.
Mysti byrnes
Media & Development Liaison
Mysti Byrnes is deeply passionate about cultivating a strong artistic community in the Greater Baton Rouge Region. She holds a Masters Degree in Voice from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s Degree in Voice and Political Science from Louisiana State University. Her experience in nonprofit development and consulting spans a decade and includes work with Teach for America, University Musical Society, Detroit Opera House, Opera Louisiane, Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, and Big River Economic & Agricultural Development Alliance.
Meghan Rhoades
Assistant Artistic Administrator
and Digital Creative Content Manager
Pianist Meghan Rhoades is currently enrolled in the Opera Studies/Repetiteur at the Guildhall School in London after finishing a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano at Louisiana State University with Professor Ana Maria Otamendi. This past summer they attended Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California as a Vocal Piano fellow. As a Graduate Assistant at LSU, they have worked with vocalists and instrumentalists in weekly lessons, studio classes, recitals, and recordings throughout each semester. They also served as the pianist for LSU’s Contemporary New Music Ensemble (CNME), which performed at Carnegie Hall in April 2022. Outside of their assistantship, Meghan maintains a rigorous freelance schedule, including performing and recording new compositions as well as playing for students’ classes and juries.
Meghan has served as a rehearsal pianist and vocal coach for Louisiana State University’s spring production of Little Night Music, Music Director for Music On Site’s winter production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and rehearsal pianist and vocal coach for Die Zauberflöte at the 2022 Trentino Music Festival in Fiera di Primiero, Italy. Meghan additionally attended the Collaborative Piano Institute in June of 2022, where they performed in masterclasses with renowned collaborative pianists such as Martin Katz and Kathy Kelly. In their undergraduate studies, they also worked as a studio pianist in Professor Emeritus Jean del Santo’s voice studio and Professor Immanuel Davis’ flute studio. Meghan holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where they studied with Dr. Kyung Kim.
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, awarded violinist Santiago Salazar has developed a career as an orchestra musician, concertmaster, chamber musician, and soloist. Praised for his leadership capabilities and colorful sound, Santiago has performed in acclaimed venues around South America, Europe, Russia, and the United States. As an educator Santiago has been part of projects such as the Classical Music Institute in San Antonio Texas, and the String Project at Missouri State University, as well as teaching for Missouri State University, The University of Kansas, and maintaining an active private studio. As a conductor Santiago was recently appointed assistant conductor for the Overland Park Orchestra in Kansas. Santiago holds degrees from New Mexico State University, Missouri State University, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas School of Music.
