Administration & Faculty Piano Faculty
Piano Faculty
Natia Esartia, Director of Piano Studies
Natia Esartia started playing piano at the age of seven. She began her studies in Moscow before coming to the US and settling in Atlanta. She graduated from Druid Hills High School, and received a Bachelor of Music in piano performance at the University of Georgia. She then moved to New York to continue her studies. There, she received a Master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied classical solo and chamber repertoire with Jeffrey Cohen and contemporary piano repertoire with Anthony De Mare; she also earned a Master’s degree in Music Education (with K-12 certification) from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Natia uses her broad experience and expertise not only to teach Center students, but also to lead the Center piano faculty as a curricular and pedagogical resource. She greatly enjoys playing and teaching piano and chamber music, and credits her studies at Teachers College with allowing her full appreciation for exploring and creating music with children. Natia also enjoys premiering new music written for solo piano or chamber ensembles.
Logan Albright
Logan Albright is a graduate of Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH and Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he studied composition and harmony, and obtained a degree in Film Scoring. His experience is wide-ranging: he composes music for film; performs in rock bands; and writes/arranges solo and ensemble pieces out of his home studio. As an instrumentalist, he has studied piano, accordion, guitar, saxophone, marimba and clarinet, and is continually expanding his repertoire. Logan's educational philosophy fuses classical technique with forward-thinking creativity and experimentalism.
Colin Baylor
Colin has been playing the piano since he was eight years old, beginning with classical repertoire and later adding jazz. Before college, he spent a summer studying piano at the Northwestern University School of Music. Last May, he graduated from Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Classical Civilization. During his four years at Emory, Colin focused on jazz, studying under Emory Professor Gary Motley, playing with the university jazz combos and big band, and performing on stage with jazz notables such as David Sanchez, Philip Harper, and Dwight Andrews. In April 2008, he presented his senior recital, which focused on the early years of jazz music.
Colin also plays the synthesizer for various rock groups and solo piano for social events. He is currently at work on several different music projects including a film soundtrack, compositions for his band, and curriculum for the Center's Jazz Improv Seminar, one of the new CMP course offerings.
Keith Leslie
Keith Leslie has been living, performing, and teaching in Atlanta for over ten years. As a performer, he has been involved with projects that range stylistically from improvisational music to avant-garde performance art. He learned to play "inside" at Florida State University and he learned to reject those teachings from playing with the likes of local artists Brian Parks, Robert Cheatham, Ben Davis, Roger Ruzow, and Daniel Clay. He is a frequent performer at EyeDrum Art and Music Gallery and has played venues throughout the Southeast. Currently, Keith is performing with the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra, an ensemble made up of some of Atlanta's most exciting players. He also composes music for film and video games.
Jeana Melilii
Diana Orozco
Diana Orozco studied music and music education at the Oberlin College-Conservatory. She has taught on faculty, in workshops, and in summer day camps at a number of Atlanta area schools; she is currently the K-6 music teacher at The Children’s School in Midtown Atlanta. Since moving to Atlanta in the mid 1990's, Diana has been cultivating young pianists. Before opening the Music Center, she maintained a piano studio of 30 or more students from her home in the Morningside neighborhood of Atlanta. Diana is particularly interested in teaching elementary school-aged children. Her training at The Children's School has focused on a variety of educational issues, including extensive training in differentiated learning styles and brain-based methodologies. She also studied arts management at the graduate level through an on-line series of courses offered by the University of Massachusetts.
Vanessa Sheets
Vanessa Sheets is a native of Peru. She began her musical studies playing the bombo (a Peruvian drum) at her church, and then guitar at a neighborhood music school. For her 10th birthday she received a keyboard, and shortly thereafter, she began piano studies. At 15 Vanessa enrolled to study piano with Nikolai Maloff (a pianist with a lineage traceable to Franz Liszt) at the Conservatory of Music in Lima, Peru. At the Conservatory, Vanessa earned a degree in music education, with a specialization in piano instruction. From Nikolai, Vanessa learned a pedagogical approach that strikes a beneficial and healthy balance between enjoyment of music and intense focus on technique and strict rules in cultivating repertoire.
Vanessa began teaching music in 1998, maintaining a private piano studio in Lima for 6 years. Although immersed in classical musical traditions and repertoire, Vanessa also consistently maintained an interest in the music of her native land and popular music from abroad. In 2005, she formed the musical ensemble Adagio, which performed regularly on a Peruvia television show. In 2006, she produced a children's Christmas CD "Rayitos en Navidad," an album which demonstrates her interest in teaching and coaching children and also the blending of eclectic musical styles. In addition to teaching piano, Vanessa has also taught music theory, composition, piano literature, and music history in different institutions in South America. Vanessa immigrated to the United States in 2006. She is trilingual, fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
Gregory Thompson
Gregory Thompson is a Jazz pianist/Composer/Songwriter. Born on the tiny 37 square mile Caribbean island of St.Maarten. Gregory grew up with a love and passion for practically every genre of music. After completing high school, Gregory moved to the United States to further his studies. He earned a Bachelors in Music Technology at Lagrange College, and then a Masters in Music Performance at Florida Atlantic University, with a focus on jazz performance. Between his undergraduate and graduate studies, Gregory spent a year teaching piano at the Music Center.
Gregory balances his time by working on writing and recording music and practicing Jazz improvisation.