Olga Kern

Olga Kern (Russian: Ольга Керн) (born April 23, 1975, Moscow) is a Russian-American classical pianist. She was the first woman in over 30 years to receive the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal in the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In May 2017, Kern received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of her talent, generosity, and compassion for the arts.

Kern was born into a family of musicians. Her parents are both pianists, and she is related to the Russian socialite and memoirist Anna Petrovna Kern. She began studying piano at age five with Professor Evgeny Timakin at the Central Music School of Moscow and gave her first concert at age seven in the same city. She won her first international competition, the Concertino Praga Competition, at age 11 in the Czech Republic. At 17, she won first prize at the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition. While in school, she received an honorary scholarship from the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin in 1996.

Early career

Kern continued her studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Professor Sergei Dorensky and continued her postgraduate studies at the same school. She also studied with Professor Boris Petrushansky at the Accademia Pianistica 'Incontri col Maestro' in Imola. From 1989 to 1994, Kern held a scholarship with the “New Names” Foundation.

Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

Kern attained international prominence when she became the first woman in over thirty years to receive the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal in the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2001. She appears in three documentaries about the competition: Playing on the Edge (2001), They Came to Play (2008), and The Cliburn: 50 Years of Gold. An additional documentary was made about Kern following the 2001 Van Cliburn competition, titled Olga's Journey (2003).

Notable performances

Kern has given solo recitals and performed in concerts across the world including Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She has performed in notable venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Russia's Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. She has also performed in recital several times with well-known sopranos Renée Fleming and Kathleen Battle.

In the early 1990s, through the New Names Foundation, Kern performed for Icelandic president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir and at the United Nations. In 1991, she performed for Mikhail Gorbachev and Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu as part of the “Wave 2000” festival.

After winning the gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, Kern performed in Van Cliburn’s honor at the 24th Kennedy Center Honors and at the White House for George W. Bush.

Soon after a North American recital tour with violinist Vladimir Spivakov in February 2012, Kern was invited by film director Steven Spielberg to perform in honor of his father, Arnold Spielberg, at the Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles.

In 2013, in celebration of the 140th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s birth, Kern toured and played all four of the composer’s concerti, plus his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de Lyon. The same program was reprised with orchestras in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Colorado, Arizona, and Warsaw.

In 2014, Kern became a Steinway & Sons exclusive artist. That same year, Kern gave the inaugural performance in the Kimball Art Museum's Piano Pavilion concert hall for the Van Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth, Texas.

Pedagogy

Besides performing, Kern is an active music pedagogue, and has conducted master classes at such locations as Yale University, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and New York City's 92nd Street Y. Kern has been a jury member for several international competitions including Grand Prix Animato in Paris, France; the Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow, Scotland; Amadeus Competition in Brno, Czech Republic; and the Top of the World International Piano Competition in Tromsø, Norway. Kern was jury chairman for the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition in June 2016.

In September 2017, Kern is scheduled to join the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

Kern is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences’s Division of the Arts. She was artistic director of the Cape Town Summer Festival from 2006 to 2011 and frequently returns.

In 2016, Kern launched the Olga Kern International Piano Competition for pianists between the ages of 18 and 32. Taking place every three years in Albuquerque, New Mexico the competition's mission is to "provide the venue for young pianists to develop international careers through a competition that is recognized globally for its value and excellence." Kern serves as Artistic Director and President of the Jury.

The inaugural competition took place in Albuquerque November 13 - 20, 2016. Twenty-two contestants representing fourteen countries were chosen from submitted video auditions and judged by Kern along with eight other internationally-recognized judges. The competition gave away a total of $30,000 in prize money with the winner receiving $11,000 along with a professional recording on the Steinway & Sons Label and tours throughout Europe and the United States. Vladimir Kern conducted the finalist concert with the New Mexico Philharmonic.

In honor of the festival and of Kern, Albuquerque mayor Richard Berry issued an executive order declaring November 20 "Olga Kern Day," coinciding with the final day of the competition.

Olga Kern International Piano Competition Awards

In 2012, Kern established the “Aspiration” foundation with her brother, the conductor, composer, and teacher Vladimir Kern. The aim of the foundation is to provide financial and artistic assistance to developing young musicians throughout the world.

Kern is a laureate of many international competitions throughout Russia, Europe, the United States, Japan, China, and South Africa.

Kern lives in New York City. Her son is Vladislav Kern, who also plays piano and graduated from Juilliard’s Pre-College School in May 2016. Vladislav currently studies at the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale "Incontri col Maestro" di Imola in Italy.