Recognized worldwide as a leading chamber musician and collaborative pianist, Jonathan Feldman has performed on four continents with some of the world’s greatest instrumentalists, including Nathan Milstein, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, James Galway, Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell, and Emmanuel Pahud. He also has performed with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensembles and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He was a featured performer in a recent installment of Live from Lincoln Center with Gil Shaham. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he joined the Juilliard faculty in 1989 and chaired the school’s collaborative piano department for 25 years. A member of the collaborative piano faculty at New England Conservatory since 2011, he has given masterclasses throughout the United States and the Far East and has lectured at international festivals and competitions. Mr. Feldman was a guest artist at the Music Academy from 2001-02 and has been a teaching artist since 2003.

Natasha Kislenko has performed extensively as a soloist and a collaborative pianist across Europe, Middle East and the Americas. A highly sought after collaborator, Ms. Kislenko has enjoyed a varied performing career as an active chamber musician, an orchestral keyboardist with the Santa Barbara and San Diego Symphony, and recitalist with singers and instrumentalists. Her distinguished partners include Michelle Bradley, Leone Buyse, Tadeu Coelho, David Cohen, Marcus Groh, Frank Huang, Chavdar Parashkevov and Zvi Zeitlin.

Natasha gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and has appeared as a concerto soloist with Orquesta del Congreso Nacional (Paraguay), the Varna Chamber Orchestra (Bulgaria), the Eskisehir Municipal Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), New West Symphony, and the Santa Barbara Symphony.

Ms. Kislenko has been on the piano faculty of UC Santa Barbara since 2007. Previously, she served on the faculties of California State University Fresno and Meadowmount School of Music (New York). An alumna of the Music Academy of the West (2001), Ms. Kislenko has been a member of the faculty since 2004. Ms. Kislenko holds graduate degrees in piano from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) and Stony Brook University, NY, where she completed her doctorate with Gilbert Kalish.

Pianist Margaret McDonald, a native of Minnesota, is an Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder.  She joined the College of Music keyboard faculty in the fall of 2004. She helped to develop the College’s graduate degree program in Collaborative Piano and the undergraduate collaborative curriculum. Praised for her poetic style and versatility, Dr. McDonald enjoys a very active performing career and has partnered many distinguished artists including the Takács Quartet, Kathleen Winkler, Zuill Bailey, Paula Robison, Carol Wincenc, Ben Kamins, David Shifrin, David Jolley, Ian Bousfield, Joseph Alessi, Steven Mead, and Velvet Brown.  She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Dr. McDonald received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of California – Santa Barbara.  Her principal teachers include Lydia Artymiw and Anne Epperson.  She received fellowships to study at both the Music Academy of the West and the Tanglewood Music Center where she worked closely with Dawn Upshaw, Robert Spano, and Osvaldo Golijov.

Dr. McDonald is active throughout the country giving master classes at institutions including The Juilliard School, Indiana University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Arizona State University, University of California - Santa Barbara, and Louisiana State University.  She has released recordings with Velvet Brown, tuba, Aaron Tindall, tuba, and Erika Eckert, viola for Potenza Records and Meridian Records.

Dr. McDonald has been a staff accompanist at the Meadowmount School for Strings in New York and an official accompanist at the Music Teachers National Association competition and the National Flute Association annual convention. McDonald is an alumna of the Music Academy of the West and has been a member of the Music Academy faculty since 2005.