Celebrating the Arts

Grand Valley State University's fall music season begins on a vibrant note with pianist Olga Kern, gold medal winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The Russian pianist, hailed by critics for both her stunning musicianship and vivid stage presence, will also kick off Grand Valley's new Fall Arts Celebration.

Kern will be featured at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10, at the Louis Armstrong Theatre of the Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus. Tickets are $10, available by calling Tickets PLUS at (616) 222-4000 or (800) 585-3737, or at any Tickets PLUS outlet. A champagne reception with the artist follows the performance.

The prestigious Van Cliburn Competition, held every four years in Fort Worth, Texas, attracts the world's best young pianists, with finalists awarded significant cash prizes and international concert tours. In June 2001, then-26-year-old Kern became the first woman to be awarded the gold medal in more than 30 years. She has also received top honors in the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition -- when she was just 17 -- and is now a laureate of 11 international competitions.

Following her Van Cliburn victory, Kern made her Boston Pops debut and performed at the Kennedy Center in a tribute to Van Cliburn. This season's engagements include performances with the Fort Worth, Puerto Rico, San Diego, and Tucson Symphony Orchestras, as well as tours with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Kern's piano artistry has been hailed by reviewers throughout the world. The Dallas Morning News called her 'a player of enormous brilliance and passion, and one who whips audiences into frenzies.' The Washington Post stated, 'Kern's musicality radiates off the stage and saturates the hall, and it is joyously alive, immediately communicative, fragrantly sensual, and almost visual in intensity. Whatever it is--call it star quality--music likes Kern the way the camera liked Garbo.'

Her performance concludes Grand Valley's presentation of the four medalists of the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition. Previous concerts included Kern's co-winner of the gold medal, Stanislav Ioudenitch, who performed last October. Grand Valley's Van Cliburn Medalist Concert Series is sponsored by Robert and Judith Hooker.

Kern's upcoming concert also serves as a beginning. It is the first event featured in Grand Valley's Fall Arts Celebration, which showcases acclaimed musicians, poets, artists, and scholars on Grand Valley stages and in galleries from September through November.