Born in 1986, Olga Paschenko is a piano prodigy from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in her native Moscow. She began playing the instrument at the age of six, and trained at the Gnessin Academy, where she also took up the harpsichord. After her first New York recital at the age of nine, she studied with Alexei Lyubimov and took lessons in fortepiano and organ, graduating in 2010. After a period at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where she studied with Richard Egarr, her concert career developed throughout Europe, from recitals to festivals. Awarded several prizes in a wide variety of styles, the pianist recorded her first album, Transitions, in 2013, then signed with the Alpha Classics label, where she began a cycle dedicated to Beethoven, including sonatas, variations and chamber music. In 2018, a program dedicated to Dussek sees her perform under the direction of her former teacher Alexei Lioubimov, before two volumes of lieder with baritone Georg Nigl. In 2021, she begins performing Mozart concertos with the critically acclaimed ensemble Il Gardellino, as does her recital Guess Who? (2025), a musical treasure hunt involving guessing the pieces composed by Felix or Fanny Mendelssohn, on a Conrad Graf fortepiano from 1836.
