Programme:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Variations on the Theme by Salieri
Robert Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
George Gershwin: Three Preludes for Piano
Earl Wild:  Virtuoso Etude No. 7, based on Gershwin’s Fascinatin’ Rhythm
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Sergei Rachmaninoff:
Moments musicaux, Op. 16, No. 4
Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33, No. 8
Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3, No. 4
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Méditation No. 5, Op. 72
Alexander Scriabin:
Etude for piano in F sharp major, Op. 42, No. 4
Etude for piano in C sharp minor, Op. 42, No. 5
Mily Balakirev: Islamey, Oriental Fantasy, Op. 18

Pianist Olga Kern is today recognised as one of the greatest artists of her generation, while her captivating stage presence and technical musicality make her a favourite of audiences and critics alike. She began her career in the USA in 2001 with a historic gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, becoming the first woman to win the medal in over thirty years, and with her victory at the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition in 1992. Since then she has performed regularly with acclaimed orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington), Filarmonica della Scala Orchestra (La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, Milan), the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker (Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra), among others. She has presided over the juries of several major piano competitions and is the artistic director of her own Olga Kern International Piano Competition. She has been a member of the faculty of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music since 2017 and in 2019 was appointed the Connie & Marc Jacobson Director of Chamber Music at the Virginia Arts Festival (USA). With her brother, the conductor and composer Vladimir Kern, she set up the international Kern Foundation Aspiration, a charitable organisation that provides financial and artistic assistance to musicians all over the world. The concert programme will feature a contrasting combination of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, works from the Russian classical repertoire, and works by George Gershwin, who bridged the worlds of classical and popular music through jazz elements.

• a documentary about Olga Kern entitled Olga’s Journey tells the story of her rise to fame in the years following her Gold Medal in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
• in 1996, while still at school, she received an honorary scholarship from the Russian president Boris Yeltsin
• she was born into a family of musicians with direct links to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov and began studying the piano at the age of five
• in 2017 she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, awarded to Americans “who embody the spirit of America”; other recipients include former presidents, religious and business leaders and Nobel laureates
• she loves nature of all types and paints as inspiration for her work