Ana María Otamendi

Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover Fellow

Pianist/Coach (Venezuela)

HGO appearances: Studio artist (2011 – 12)

About the Artist: Otamendi is coaching the HGO productions of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Verdi’s La traviata and Donizetti’s Mary Stuart, and will appear with the HGO Studio in concert at Rienzi and elsewhere. Since her orchestral debut at age 12, Otamendi has performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist in Panama, USA, Spain, Italy, and Venezuela. She has won three important Venezuelan Piano Competitions as well as the USC Concerto Competition and the Ouro Branco Festival Competition (Brazil). Otamendi 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. She has been a member of faculty at the International Spanish Music Course for pianists and singers (Spain, 2006), and the Michigan-Florence Opera program (Italy, 2009 and 2010). In summer 2011, she participated in the prestigious Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera. She is also a geophysical engineer, and her final thesis was published in the prestigious scientific magazine Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors.