Olga Kern

Biography

On May 1, 2004, Olga Kern, the striking young Russian Gold Medal winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, whose performance of the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 made her the first woman to achieve this distinction in over 30 years – made her New York City debut in Carnegie's Zankel Hall. Eleven days later she returned to New York to play at Carnegie again, this time on the stage of the Isaac Stern Auditorium at the invitation of Carnegie Hall.

Since her triumph at the Van Cliburn, Ms. Kern's critically acclaimed orchestral engagements have included the Chicago Symphony with Christoph Eschenbach, and James Conlon, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the Utah Symphony with Keith Lockhart; the Kirov Orchestra with Valery Gergiev; and Dallas; Rochester; Syracuse; Columbia, North Carolina; El Paso; and Naples; to name a few. Recital performances have taken place at the Kennedy Center Honors with Renee Fleming, also in Atlanta, Boulder, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Portland and San Juan. Ms. Kern undertook an extensive tour of South Africa in 2002 and returned there in February/March of 2005. Her 2004-2005 season included a 23 city tour of the US with the Warsaw Philharmonic in the Fall and a solo recital tour of the US in the Spring.

Ms. Kern's busy 2005-2006 schedule includes a number of debuts, among them a performance with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan and a recital at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The 2005-2006 season will also feature Ms. Kern's return to the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico where she will be performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Conertos Nos. 2 & 4 as well as Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini all in one night.