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Pianist Olga Kern to make 2006 debut at Alice Tully Hall

Russian pianist Olga kern is set to make her debut at the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln center in New York early next year. The concert, which has specially chosen programme by the pianist, will take place on March 16, 2006.

The complete program is as follows: "Variations serieuses in D minor", Op. 54 Felix Mendelssohn "Scherzo from a Midsummer Night's Dream" Mendelssohn-Rachmaninoff "Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor," Op. 35 Frederic Chopin "Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3" Sergei Rachmaninoff "Elegie in E flat minor", "Prelude in C sharp minor", "Melodie in E major", "Polichinelle in F sharp minor", "Serenade in B flat minor", "Reminiscences de Don Juan" Franz Liszt.

Olga Kern spoke about the programme saying, "The Mendelssohn Variations was a favorite of Vladimir Horowitz, but has not been prominent on programs since his death. It is a wonderful work and should be played and heard often. I hope to record this piece in the very near future, and did recently record the Chopin Sonata, which will be released soon. I have already released both the Mendelssohn-Rachmaninoff and the Liszt, and am thrilled to have an opportunity now to perform them live in New York City."

Olga Kern began her formal training with acclaimed teacher Evgeny Timakin at the Moscow Central School and continued with Professor Sergei Dorensky at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she was also a postgraduate student. She also studied with Boris Petrushansky at the acclaimed Accademia Pianistica Incontri col Maestro in Imola, Italy.

The young pianist was born into a family of musicians with direct links to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and began studying piano at the age of five. Winner of the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition when she was seventeen, she is a laureate of eleven international competitions and has toured throughout her native Russia, Europe, and the United States, as well as in Japan, South Africa, and South Korea. The recipient of an honorary scholarship from the President of Russia in 1996, she is a member of Russia's International Academy of Arts.

Ms. Kern has performed in many of the world's most important venues, including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Salzburger Festspielehaus, Symphony Hall in Osaka, La Scala in Milan, Tonhalle in Zurich, and the Chatelet in Paris; she has appeared as soloist with the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Symphony, Russian National, China Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, La Scala Philharmonic, Torino Symphony, and Cape Town Symphony Orchestras. She has performed with the Kirov Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev at Kennedy Center, and at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Christoph Eschenbach.