Misha Studenkov is a versatile musician active as a pianist, keyboardist, accordionist, and composer\/arranger in the Greater Rochester Area. Misha\u2019s jazz piano styles draw from blues, bebop, and modal traditions, combining into a vibrant palette for storytelling and expression. An interest in folk accordion stemming from his family background led Misha to integrate the instrument into his musical signature and his work with jazz ensembles.<\/p>\n
A California native mentored by South Bay jazz legend Kirk Tamura, Misha received his BM from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied jazz piano performance under Gary Versace. At Eastman, Misha worked with guest artists including Maria Schneider, John Clayton, Ren\u00e9e Fleming, Dafnis Prieto, and Jeremy Pelt. He has been an intern instructor of jazz piano and accordion at the Eastman Community Music School since 2023 and performs frequently in and around Rochester. His compositions have won awards in the South Bay and been recorded by Eastman student ensembles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":32734,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"faculty-category":[],"faculty-instrument":[228,4581],"faculty-department":[141,142],"faculty-ensemble":[],"faculty-type":[2011],"faculty-tag":[],"class_list":["post-32731","ecms-faculty","type-ecms-faculty","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","faculty-instrument-accordion","faculty-instrument-jazz-piano","faculty-department-beyond-classical-jazz","faculty-department-jazz-studies","faculty-type-student-teacher"],"acf":[],"mb":[],"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/files\/Misha-Studenkov-e1754680609773.jpg","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/author\/alison-mack\/","display_name":"Alison Mack"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 8 months ago","modified":"Updated 4 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on August 8, 2025","modified":"Updated on December 10, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on August 8, 2025 3:15 PM","modified":"Updated on December 10, 2025 5:21 PM"},"featured_img_caption":"","tax_additional":{"faculty-category":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"faculty-category","name":"ECMS Faculty Categories"},"faculty-instrument":{"linked":["Accordion<\/a>","Jazz Piano<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Accordion<\/span>","Jazz Piano<\/span>"],"slug":"faculty-instrument","name":"ECMS Faculty Instruments"},"faculty-department":{"linked":["Beyond Classical & Jazz<\/a>","Jazz Studies<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Beyond Classical & Jazz<\/span>","Jazz Studies<\/span>"],"slug":"faculty-department","name":"ECMS Faculty Departments"},"faculty-ensemble":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"faculty-ensemble","name":"ECMS Faculty Ensembles"},"faculty-type":{"linked":["Student Teacher<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Student Teacher<\/span>"],"slug":"faculty-type","name":"ECMS Faculty Types"},"faculty-tag":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"faculty-tag","name":"ECMS Faculty Tags"}},"series_order":"","mfb_rest_fields":["title","author","featured_img","coauthors","author_meta","relative_dates","absolute_dates","absolute_dates_time","featured_img_caption","tax_additional","series_order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty\/32731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ecms-faculty"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty\/32731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32737,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ecms-faculty\/32731\/revisions\/32737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"faculty-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-category?post=32731"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-instrument","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-instrument?post=32731"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-department?post=32731"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-ensemble","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-ensemble?post=32731"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-type?post=32731"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-tag?post=32731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}