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Mel Bay best-selling author, Misha V. Stefanuk, started playing piano at the age of five. He composed his first piece when he was nine. Mr. Stefanuk studied at the Moscow Studio of Music Improvisation Art, the Moscow Conservatory School, the Russian Academy of Music, Belmont University, Skidmore Jazz Institute, and Washington State University. He has written more then 100 works for a variety of instrumentations, as well as music for over thirty theater shows, including an original score for Y2K Survival Guide with Leonard Nemoy. Misha has composed a significant amount of music for network television, including programs such as All My Children (ABC), One Life to Live (ABC), Passions (NBC), The Chris Isaak Show (Showtime) and First Monday (CBS). Among his works are the Mel Bay best-sellers Jazz Piano Chords (2001) and Jazz Piano Scales (2003), Jazz Piano for the Young Beginner, and Piano for Adults (2003).
Mr. Stefanuk is a monthly columnist for Creative Keyboard and a judge at the “Annual Chopin Youth Piano Competition” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Stefanuk is a prize-winner of the Stereotypes and Nations Composition Competition held by Muzica Centrum Art Society in Cracow, Poland for his composition Equinokse for oboe, string trio and prepared piano, and of the Concerto Aria Composition Competition at Belmont University for his piece The New American Symphony. He was also named Outstanding Piano Player at the l29th Annual Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and has won full scholarships at Belmont University, Washington State University, and Skidmore Summer Jazz Institute.
Misha and his wife, Evan, teach over one hundred students at Johnson Ferry Conservatory of Music in Atlanta Georgia and privately. Among them are recording artists, TV personalities, winners of national and regional competitions, and teachers. Misha’s students attended a number of prestigious music schools in US, and abroad. Mr. Stefanuk has released over twenty CDs varying from Contemporary Classical to Jazz, New Age and Pop.