Todor Stoinov, Director of the Academy earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the State Academy of Music in Sofia,Bulgaria. In 1993, the year of his graduation, he won third prize in the Johannes Brahms piano competition in Sofia. In 1996, Mr. Stoinov became a tenured professor at the New Bulgarian University. He performed as a soloist and with orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, and received first prize in the William T. Gower Concerto Competition in Hattiesburg in 2001.
Mr. Stoinov came to the US in 2000 to study with Dr. Stanley Waldorff at the University of Southern Mississippi where he received a second master degree. In 2005 Mr. Stoinov received a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Longy School of Music. From 2005 to 2007 he studied at Harvard University Extension School. He has taught at Wallnut Hill School in Natick, Joy of Music School in Worchester, Sharon Music Academy, Allegro Music School in Natick
His students received first prices in international piano competitions in Finland, USA, Austria and have performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Currently he is also a music director at the Franklin Federated Church, Franklin, MA where he enjoys exploring a wide range of musical styles. He invites performers of historic instruments as well as classical, jazz, pop, and folk music performers.
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Lora Tchekoratova
Lecturer, Chamber Music Coach, Music Program Adviser.
Lora Tchekoratova began her piano studies at age four and gave her first recital five years later at the State Music School in Sofia, Bulgaria. At age eighteen, she continued her studies at The Juilliard School in New York City, where she received her Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees as a student of Seymour Lipkin. She has made numerous recordings for Radio and Television in Bulgaria, Sweden, Finland, and the US. Her CD recordings for Gega New have been received with worldwide critical acclaim.
Lora Tchekoratova has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. At age 21 she won first prize at the Washington International Competition for pianists, where she was also awarded the audience prize, and the prize for the youngest finalist. Subsequently, Ms. Tchekoratova made her debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She also made recital appearances at the Phillips Collection (broadcast over WGTS-FM) as well as in Alexandria, Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York. During the 2011/2012 Season, Ms. Tchekoratova is engaged to perform as soloist and chamber musician at major venues in New York, Miami, Boston, Chicago as well as in Canada, Bulgaria and Sweden. She is a frequent soloist with the major orchestras in her native Bulgaria, and has performed with the Lyric Orchestra of New Jersey, New World Symphony, and the Friday Morning Music Club orchestra in Washington, D.C.
As an active advocate for new music, Ms. Tchekoratova has appeared at many festivals for new music, such as Focus, Summergarden, and Piano Century at the Juilliard Theater, MoMA, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Recently Tchekoratova performed at the American Composers' Festival in New York's Symphony Space, and the Keys to the Future festival for new and recent piano music at Greenwich House, New York.
Lora Tchekoratova is a dedicated chamber musician. She frequently performs with her husband, violinist Georgy Valtchev. This season they presented a series of concerts in Maryland, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York. She also appears regularly in various chamber music programs with members of the New World Symphony, where she was a fellow for two seasons under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. These collaborations led her to performances in Miami (at the Lincoln Theater,) Palm Beach (Kravis Center,) New York (Union Club), as well as on tours in Boston, Long Island; and abroad in Prague, Rome, and Monte Carlo.
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When he was 8, Baris Perker began his piano studies with Prof. Seher Tanrıyar in the preparatory division of the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory. In 1994, he was accepted to the composition department of the same university and studied composition with Prof. Hasan Uçarsu and piano with Prof. Metin Ülkü. Upon succesful completion of the requirements of both Piano and composition departments, Perker graduated from the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2002. He was accepted to the composition department of the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute in 2003 there he studied with many renowned composers such as Nicholas Maw, Bruno Amato, Christopher Theofanidis and Shafer Mahoney. He holds his Master in Music (2005) and Doctor of Musical Arts (2011) degrees from Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute.
Among the awards Baris Perker received are Macht Composition Competition first prize with his orchestral work, The Dreamy Dance; Randolph Rothschild Merit award; Prix d’Ete Electronic Music Competition second prize with his Fantasy for Bassoon and Max electro-acoustic work and in 2006, Dr. Nejat Eczacibasi National Composition Competition second prize with his orchestral work Sound of the Red Shadow.
The composition commissions that Baris Perker received include a chamber music work for violin, guitar and voice with the same title of an English translation of Orhan Veli Kanık’s famous poem I am listening to İstanbul, commissioned by the Chamber Music Department of the Peabody Institute, a theatre piece “Leaves with a Name” for the 150th anniversary of the Peabody Institute by the Peabody Institute Ballet Department and in 2010 a solo harp piece Seven Images of Istanbul to be performed by harpist Şirin Pancaroğlu in one of the events of Istanbul – European Capital of Culture project.
Perker’s most orchestral works have been performed by many renowned orchestras in Turkey such as Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchstra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra and also by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in the US. In these concerts, many great musicians appeared as soloists and conductors such as Mark Kadin, Gürer Aykal, Naci Özgüç, Burak Tüzün, Bohuslav Rattay, Paul Kim, Antonio Pirolli, Metin Ülkü, Jerfi Aji and Kenneth Radnofsky. In addition to them, Michael Sheppard, Brian Bubnash, Hey Rim Jeon, Ina Zdorovetchi, Sirin Pancaroğlu and other names performed works by Barıs Perker in multiple concerts.
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Juan A. Mesa
Juan A. Mesa began his early musical training in his native city of Puerto Montt in Chile. He studied piano and guitar, later joining the Valdivia Conservatory as a piano student of Ximena Cabello.
Juan immigrated to the US in 2001, and obtained the Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance and composition from Western Connecticut State University in 2005. He later completed his Master of Music degree in organ performance and early music at Indiana University, studying organ with Christopher Young, harpsichord and continuo with Elisabeth Wright, and improvisation with Todd Wilson and Jeffrey Smith.
Juan has performed solo recitals across the US and Canada, as well as in Chile and Argentina, and has collaborated with many groups, including the Indiana-based Exordium Baroque Ensemble, the Crescendo Period Orchestra in western Connecticut, the Choirs of Trinity Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, MYRIAM ensemble of Boston, and the award-winning University of Notre Dame’s Children’s Choirs.
Juan is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Music Theory department at Indiana University, and for 6 years he led the multigenerational music program at St. Mary's church in Holliston, MA.
In his free time Juan enjoys hiking, traveling, and surfing the New England skies onboard his favorite airplane, the Piper PA-28.
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JAMES AUBURN is a keyboardist, singer, teacher, arranger, writer, and music director who has lived half his life in Biloxi, MS, the other in the Boston area; he loves and plays pop, rock, hip-hop, funk, disco, R&B, jazz, musical theater, and most other genres, as well. A Berklee College of Music graduate, he has played Carnegie Hall, opened for 80`s icons Richard Marx and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, jammed with Ernie Isley, toured Europe with Boston rap legend Edo.G, played Motown classics with Berry Gordy himself sitting in the front row, and accompanied and performed with numerous contestants/finalists from shows such as American Idol, The Voice, The Sing Off, others among many other highlights.
James has taught music theory at a Boston University affiliate school; taught piano and ensemble at Cambridge Arts Academy (some of his students performed at Symphony Hall alongside Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops); has given music history clinics at Harvard, Berklee, Suffolk University, Fisher College; wrote album reviews for Okayplayer.com (the online hub for the Roots, D`Angelo, Common, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, etc.); has been a historical resource to students at Harvard Divinity School, Northeastern University, Emerson College, Norwich University, Boston University, and Boston College; was quoted in an ABC News article, and was a panelist at NEMO Boston.