Kacey Link is a pianist and scholar residing in Santa Barbara, CA. As a both a solo and collaborative artist, she performs regularly in Southern California and has given recitals in the United States, France, and Switzerland. She is a pianist for University of California—Santa Barbara Department of Theater and Dance and served as music director for Out of the Box Theatre Company for the 2014-2015 season. She also has worked as a pianist for Opera Santa Barbara, Kansas City Lyric Opera, and New Theatre of Kansas City as well as accompanied classes for such prestigious artists as Marilyn Horne, Yo-Yo Ma, and ballerina Heather Watts. As a scholar, her research focuses on the music of Latin America with specific concentration on tango music of Argentina and has co-authored the forthcoming book Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Instrumental Tango Music (Oxford University Press). She holds degrees from University of California – Santa Barbara (D.M.A. in Keyboard), University of Miami (M.M. in Musicology), and University of Kansas (M.M. in Accompanying, B.M. in Piano Performance).

Svetlana Rudikova-Harris, pianist, was born in Russia and is an internationally renowned solo and collaborative pianist, recording artist, and pedagogue. She earned three Masters Degrees in Performance as well as the Special Award for Excellence in Piano Performance and Instruction at the Russian National Education Competition. Gold Medalist in the Russian National Young Performance competition at age 16, she won the Russian Choral Conducting, National Piano Prize, and Russian Piano Competitions. Svetlana has recorded on the Melodiya label and has performed for over 20 years with sister-in-law Tracy Harris, both in orchestral concerts and in their “Wyndfall Duo.” In addition, she conducts clinics, and lectures and maintains a private piano studio.

Mao Saito was born in Osaka, Japan in 1986. She graduated as the best student from Kyoto City University of Arts in 2009. From 2010 to 2012, she studied at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Prof. Fabio Bidini, attaining a Master of Music with the best note in 2012. Mao Ishida won the “Ugorski Special Prize for an outstanding performance of Schumann” at the ARD International Piano Competition in Germany in 2011, the third prize at the 8th piano competition Prix Amadèo in Aachen in 2012, and the second prize at the 6th Berlin piano competition in 2012. She was on a scholarship from Yamaha Music Foundation from 2012-2015, and got “Final round scholarship” at the 60^th Busoni International Piano Competition in 2015. She often performs chamber music in Japan and Berlin and works as an accompanist.

Mandee Sikich completed her MM degree in Collaborative Piano in 2014 with Robert Koenig at UCSB where she was the recipient of a full-tuition music department fellowship. She also studied chamber music with Yuval Yaron. Mandee is the recipient of various awards including the Musician of the Year award (The Master’s College), the Christopher Parkening Scholarship for Excellence in Musical Performance, and the Estella Mays Memorial Award for Piano Performance. She has toured extensively to Italy, Germany, Israel, and Russia as a choral accompanist and served as the Westmont College Choir pianist from 2011 to 2014. She has maintained a private teaching studio in Santa Barbara since 2010 and is serving as the vice-president of the Santa Barbara Branch of the MTAC for the 2015-2016 season. Mandee has also worked as a music director for various theater companies in Santa Barbara including Elements Theatre Collective and Out of The Box Theatre Co. Her music direction credits Tom Greenwald Andrew Lippa’s John and Jen, Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and Duncan Sheik’s and Steven Sater’s Spring Awakening for which she received an Indy Award for Music Direction in May 2012. She has spent the past eight years accompanying various opera productions in the Los Angeles area and has also collaborated with numerous vocalists and instrumentalists for recitals, competitions, and recordings. This summer she studied for six weeks in Austria as a Lieder Studio pianist for the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz.

Paolo Tatafiore is a native of Naples, Italy, and comes from a family of composers, pianists, conductors, and painters. He has concertized to considerable acclaim in Germany and the United States, as well as throughout his native Italy. His musical training began at age seven, and he studied piano with Claudio Graziano, organ and composition with Aladino di Martino, Bruno Mazzotta, and Vincenzo de Gregorio at the Conservatories of Naples, Avellino, and Salerno, while concomitantly studying Ancient Literatures and Archeology at the Federico II University of Naples. He was subsequently selected for masterclasses with such eminent pianists as Carlo Bruno and Maria Tipo, followed by solo and chamber music concerts and concerto engagements in Italy, including performances at the RAI (Italian Radio and Television) Piano Festival.

In the Italian Middle School and the Conservatory of Avellino he also became a passionate and devoted piano teacher; he has continued his pedagogical interests to this day, with some of his students having become internationally recognized performers.

After moving to the United States in 2000 he regularly appeared as soloist and chamber musician in major venues, working in close contact with the League of American Orchestras while continuing touring as a soloist in Europe. In 2009 he moved to Germany, where he became involved in multimedia projects with renowned actors Mario Adorf and Juergen Wegscheider, among others. In 2011, on the occasion of Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday he and Wegscheider toured with “Liszt in Italien,” a project incorporating texts as well as letters between Liszt and Marie D’Agoult, with music and video projection.

Among his recordings is a live performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Herkulessaal der Residenz in Munich, Germany, with outstanding critical notices in major newspapers as well as the leading German magazine, Das Orchester.

Mr. Tatafiore has recently moved back to the U.S. and lives in Los Angeles, with upcoming engagements including recitals in California and concerts with American orchestras. As a composer, he has recently published a group of piano pieces and a set of variations for viola and orchestra that will be premiered in Ohio in October of this year.

Betty Oberacker, pianist, is internationally acclaimed for her interpretations of both traditional and contemporary solo and chamber music repertoire, and has toured throughout Europe, Israel, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and the U.S., including performances at Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic Hall and Vienna Musikverein. She has been Artist-in-Residence at 55 universities, conservatories and music festivals worldwide, and many important composers have dedicated their compositions to her. Her musical gifts were evidenced at three, when she began to play the piano and compose entirely by ear. Piano lessons started at age seven, and at nine she was accepted on scholarship as the only child student of the noted pianist Beryl Rubinstein. Her BM/MM Degrees are from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her DMA Degree is from Ohio State University, where she was concomitantly a member of the piano faculty. Her discography includes Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (Clavier Records), A Bach Commemorative Recital (MIT Great Performances Archives), Chamber Music of Emma Lou Diemer (Orion), Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (Century), John Biggs’ Variations on a Theme of Shostakovich (VMM), and Diemer’s Piano Concerto (MMC), the latter two works composed for Oberacker. Honors accorded her include a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Italy and the University of California Distinguished Teaching Award, and her students hold important positions as performers and teachers in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Dr. Oberacker is UCSB Professor Emeritus, and enjoys an active performing, teaching and chamber music coaching schedule.