Olga Pashchenko – (forte)piano

organ – harpsichord – fortepiano – modern piano

Olga Pashchenko is one of today’s most versatile performers on the keyboard, from organ and harpsichord to fortepiano and modern piano. Her worldwide performances and award winning competitions demonstrate a passionate personality, combined with great virtuosity, wealth of color and sensitivity towards the broad range of styles that she performs on these different keyboards.

Olga gave her first piano recital in New York when she was 9 years old. She has performed as a soloist, as chamber musician as well as orchestral soloist, in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, the USA and Russia. She has performed as orchestral soloist in the Piano Concerto by Grieg with the Meininger Hofkapelle, and in a Mozart double concerto programme with the 18th Century Orchestra. In recital, Olga masters a variety of repertoire, from Bach’s Goldberg Variations on harpsichord to Beethoven and Liszt on historical pianos and Hindemith and Ligeti on modern Steinway, and she is a regular guest at early and contemporary music festivals alike. Olga also enjoys combining different keyboards in one recital, as she has demonstrated at the Early Music Festival Utrecht and in a showcase at the Liszt International Piano Competition, where she played on four different keyboards from Liszt’s time. Olga is house musician at the museum of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, where she performs in the series “Bonngasse 20: music from Beethoven’s time”. Highlights of the 2016/17 Season are a residency at the Early Music Festival Utrecht, with performances on various keyboards, a TV recording and documentary, and several Beethoven recitals, including at the festival Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Cité de la Musique in Paris and the Juan March Foundation for Young Musicians in Madrid.

A regular guest at international competitions, Olga Pashchenko has won many prizes, including the Festival of Romantic Music in Moscow in 2005, the International Piano Competition in Carinthia, Austria, in 2006, the International Organ Competition ‘Soli Deo Gloria’ 2008 in Moscow, the Russian National Competition ‘Young Talents of Russia’ in 2009, the 1st International Fortepiano Competition at Schloss Kremsegg in Austria in 2011, the 1st International Hans von Bülow Piano Competition in Meiningen in 2012 (where she also won the Chopin Special Award), the Early Music Competition in Bruges (Fortepiano, Harpsichord), the International Premio Ferrari-Pianoforte Competition in Rovereto, Italy in 2012 and the International Early Music Bach Competition 2013 in Madrid. She took second prize and audience award at the Bach Competition in Leipzig 2014 as well as at the Geelvinck Fortepiano Festival 2014.

Born in Moscow in 1986, Olga began her musical studies at the age of 6. She was a laureate at the all-Russian Young Pianists Competition at the age of 7 and she entered the famous Gnessin Music School in Moscow, where she graduated with honors in 2005. She won a scholarship by the Russian Performance Art Fund and was a laureate at the International Gnessin Young Artists Competition and the International Beethoven Festival of Chamber Music. She continued her studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Alexei Lubimov (fortepiano and modern piano), Olga Martynova (harpsichord) and Alexei Schmitov (organ), and graduated with honors in 2010. Meantime, she graduated in linguistics at the Moscow State University. Olga was a postgraduate at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Alexei Lubimov (historical keyboards) and Konstantin Zenkin (on the interpretation of music for 15th to 19th century keyboards). She has studied fortepiano and harpsichord with Richard Egarr at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, where she received her master degree ‘cum laude’ in fortepiano in 2013 and harpsichord in 2014.

Olga has made various radio and cd-recordings. Her album ‘Transitions’, with works by Dussek, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, received wide critical acclaim, while her Beethoven solo album ‘Variations’ was issued on the Alpha label in 2015. Her next cd, also for Alpha, will include three major piano sonatas by Beethoven, the Appassionata, Waldstein and Les Adieux.

In September 2017, Olga Pashchenko has been appointed as teacher fortepiano at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam, following her teacher fortepiano, Richard Egarr, in this position.

Overview