Olga Kern

Olga Kern has brought to stages around the world some of the mix of charisma and power cultivated by pianists of the old Russian school. By age 17, Kern was being sent abroad for competitions. The jewel in Kern's competition crown came in 2001 at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where she became the first woman in the nearly 40-year history of the event to take the top prize. Kern is noted for performing the real finger-busters of the keyboard repertory. In 2005, in South Africa, she performed all four Rachmaninov piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini three times over a span of six days. Kern recorded an album of concertos by Shostakovich and Rachmaninov in 2012. In 2022, she joined the Dalí Quartet for an album of piano quintets by Brahms and Shostakovich.