Discovering the Music of Chopin, Artist Biographies:

Macedonian concert pianist, composer, and educator Dr. Natasha Stojanovska has established herself as a dynamic international artist, seamlessly bridging her Eastern European musical heritage with contemporary classical traditions. Her debut recording, Uncommon Voices (Navona Records), dedicated to women composers from Eastern Europe, was praised for its artistry and cultural significance. Building on this success, her forthcoming album, Uncommon Voices, Part II: American Women Composers, supported by a grant from the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago, continues her mission to amplify underrepresented voices in classical music.

Recent highlights include performances at the Guarneri Hall, Princeton Festival, Ear Taxi Music Festival, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Holly Name Cathedral Concert Series, Henry Fogel’s concert series, and international tours across Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and the United States. She has appeared at major festivals such as the Gilmore Piano Festival and has collaborated with renowned artists including Renée Fleming, Patricia Barber, Rachel Barton Pine, Molly Barth, Shulamit Ran, Carmen-Helena Téllez, Nathan Gunn, Luke Frazier, and Keith Lockhart. Her interdisciplinary work Dreaming Undreaming, commissioned by the Princeton Festival, exemplifies her commitment to innovative, cross-genre projects.

Equally active as a chamber musician and collaborative pianist, Stojanovska co-directs the piano duo Sisters Stojanovska with her sister Marina, a partnership that has delighted audiences for more than 25 years and earned multiple first prizes at the Macedonian National Competition. She is also in demand as a vocal coach and partner to distinguished ensembles and institutions, including the Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Taos Opera Institute, and the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus.

Her compositions—ranging from solo piano works to chamber ensembles and art songs—are profoundly inspired by the rhythms, colors, and traditions of Macedonian folk music. They have been featured at festivals in the United States, Europe, and Australia, including the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Music Across the Atlantic (Indiana), Days of Macedonian Music Festival, and the Skopje Summer Festival.

Stojanovska earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Music Theory from Northwestern University, where she studied with James Giles and received Program Honors. She also holds an Artist Diploma and Master of Music from Indiana University South Bend, where she studied with Alexander Toradze and Ketevan Badridze, and a Bachelor of Music from Lynn University under Roberta Rust. Alongside her most recent roles as Part-Time Faculty in Music Theory and Collaborative Piano at the University of New Mexico and Piano Professor at the New Mexico School for the Arts, she has maintained a thriving online piano studio for the past 18 years, teaching students across the United States and internationally.

Beyond the concert stage, she is a committed cultural ambassador and community leader. In Santa Fe, she has curated and produced concerts that brought world-class international artists to venues including the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, SITE Santa Fe, and the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe. Through her artistry, pedagogy, and leadership, Natasha Stojanovska champions classical music as a vehicle for cultural dialogue, creativity, and community connection.

Conductor and educator Oliver Prezant is the executive and artistic director of Opus OP Arts and Education Projects, which provides unique programs for listeners, musicians, and teachers in northern New Mexico. A popular lecturer for The Santa Fe Opera for many years, he has also presented lectures and education programs for arts organizations including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Performance Santa Fe, the Tanglewood Association of Volunteers, Road Scholar, the Guilds of the Santa Fe and San Francisco Opera companies. In addition, he has presented programs on the relationship of art and music for the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, the Albuquerque Museum of Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. As the music director and conductor of the Santa Fe Community Orchestra for twenty years, he worked with community musicians and choristers, professional soloists, public school music students, composers, creative artists, and community partners from Santa Fe and northern New Mexico to present a wide variety of innovative performances, unique education programs, and community collaborations. His notable compositions include The Butterfly (La Mariposa) for storyteller and orchestra, songs in a variety of genres, and educational pieces for student ensembles. Oliver was one of the founding teaching artists in Partners in Education’s ArtWorks Program, a Lincoln Center-inspired arts education program which provides workshops for Santa Fe Public Schools students and teachers in the areas of music, poetry, visual art, theater, and dance. As the artistic advisor to the program, he trained teaching artists and classroom teachers, and coordinated with area poets, museums, and other arts organizations. He studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City and the Pierre Monteux School for conductors in Hancock, Maine, and was an Assistant Professor in the Contemporary Music Program at the College of Santa Fe and an instructor at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.