2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist
Olga Kern To Perform in San Jose

Steinway Society The Bay Area announces the booking engagement of Concert Pianist Olga Kern on Saturday September 13th 2003 at 8:00PM and Sunday September 14th 2003 at 4:00PM. Ms. Kern will be performing at the Le Petit Trianon Theatre located in downtown San Jose. Tickets are priced at $35.00 General and $30.00 for Seniors 65 and over and $25 for full time students.

The Steinway Society is a non-profit volunteer based organization whose mission is "To promote excellence in piano performance and music education in the Bay Area". Entering its tenth season, the two- concert performance by Olga Kern is the opening concert of the Steinway Society’s eight concert 2003-2004 Season.

Ms. Kern was born into a family of musicians (her great-great-grandmother was a friend of Tchaikovsky, and her great-grandmother sang with 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. She is also the recipient of an honorary scholarship from the President of Russia in 1996 and a member of Russia’s International Academy of Arts.

"Kern's musicality radiates off the stage and saturates the hall, and it is joyously alive, immediately communicative, fragrantly sensual, and almost visual in its intensity. Whatever it is – call it star quality– music likes Kern the way the camera liked Garbo." –Ronald Broun, The Washington Post

Ms Kern will be performing works by Bach, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Taneyev, Balakirev, and Liszt.

Le Petit Trianon Theatre, www.trianontheatre.com, is located in downtown San Jose at 72 North 5th Street. Tickets are priced at $35.00 General and $30.00 for Seniors 65 and over and $25 for full time students, and will include complimentary refreshments at a post concert "meet the artist reception" and intermission. For tickets and information please call the Steinway Society at 408-246-4200.