Olga Gorelik is a

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian-born American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

who obtained both bachelor's and master's degrees as well as Artist Diploma in music from

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. The school was founded in 1920 by a group of supporters led by Martha Bell Sanders and Mary Hutchens Smith, with Ernest Bloch serving as its first dire ...

where she studied under guidance from such teachers as Paul Schenly, Margarita Shevchenko, and

Sergei Babayan Sergei Babayan (; born 1 January 1961) is an Armenian-American pianist. Described by ''Le Devoir'' as a "genius", Babayan won many international competitions, including the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition in 1989 and the Hamamat ...

. In May 2005 she received an invitation to perform at the Las Galas Concert Series in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and two years later got a silver medal at the

Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition is the largest and oldest continuous chamber music competition in the United States. In 1973, Joseph E. Fischoff and fellow members of the South Bend Chamber Music Society established a competition to ...

and joined Klimt. She also was a recipient of the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition's ''Barstow Prize'' which granted her to perform Rachmaninoff’s '' Piano Concerto No. 3'' at the

Concerto Competition the following year finishing her award grabbing years with Sadie Zellen's ''Piano Prize''. She has performed at the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

as well as

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. Golerik's tour of eight concerts throughout the UK in 2013 with violinist Feargus Hetherington culminated with a full house and a "breathless audience" at an

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

concert, for a programme on 'Elgar and his Contemporaries'. In 2012 their Scottish tour was also a success. Gorelik and Hetherington's Inverness concert was highly praised with comments such as "both musicians contributed to a powerful reading of these evocative and intense pieces ... this is a partnership which will go far ..."

References

Living people 21st-century American pianists Cleveland Institute of Music alumni 21st-century American women pianists Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-pianist-stub