Olga Athaide Craen

Olga Athaide Craen LRAM (1913 – 1986) was an Indian pianist and piano educator, based in Mumbai.

Olga Athaide Craen

LRAM
A young South Asian woman with wavy dark hair side-parted and dressed to the nape
Olga Athaide (later Craen), from a 1936 issue of The Indian Listener
Born1913
Died1986
Occupation(s)Pianist, piano educator
Known forThe Olga & Jules Craen Foundation

Early life and education

Olga Athaide was born in Goa, the daughter of Franklin Herculano Athaide and Ana Maria Luisa da Conceicao Cordeiro.[1] Her mother was also a pianist. With a scholarship from the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Athaide trained with Tobias Matthay and completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1936.[2][3][4]

Career

During her student days in London, Athaide performed on radio and on British and continental concert stages, including Wigmore Hall in 1936.[5] "Miss Athaide's performance showed a warm musical nature," commented one reviewer, "allied with exceptionally brilliant technic and facility."[2] In 1938, she gave a recital at the Cowasji Jehangir Hall,[6] and made her first of many appearances with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra.[3] She returned to Cowasji Jehangir Hall in 1939, with a program of French composers, for the Alliance Française in Bombay.[7]

In 1946 Craen was one of the finalists of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Music Competition in Paris.[8] In 1948, she and her husband faced difficulties when they illegally subleased a flat in India. Both were arrested, and her husband was convicted;[9] he served a jail sentence of several years for the violation. The experience depleted their funds, and their health and reputations.[10]

Craen gave public performances until the late 1950s,[11] and taught piano in Mumbai into the 1980s. One of her successful students was Marialena Fernandes.[12]

Personal life

Athaide married Belgian violinist and conductor Jules Craen in 1939. She was widowed when Jules Craen died in 1959; she died from cancer in 1986. In 2013, to mark the centennial of her birth, the Olga & Jules Craen Foundation established the Young Musician of the Year competition.[13]

References
  1. Vaz, J. Clement (1997). Profiles of Eminent Goans, Past and Present. Concept Publishing Company. p. 75. ISBN 978-81-7022-619-2.
  2. "A Bombay Success in London". The Bombay Chronicle. 5 July 1936. p. 14. Retrieved November 19, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  3. Surveyor, Suna (October 4, 1948). "Laureate of International Musical Competition" (PDF). India: 8.
  4. Royal Academy of Music (1936). List of licentiates. Part VI. 1934 - 1936 (inclusive). p. 13 – via Internet Archive.
  5. "Untitled brief item". Evening Standard. 1936-06-19. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-11-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Pianoforte Recital; Miss Olga Athaide's Impressive Performance". The Bombay Chronicle. 24 March 1938. p. 8. Retrieved November 19, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  7. "Pianoforte Recital of French Composers". The Bombay Chronicle. 23 March 1939. p. 5. Retrieved November 19, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  8. Women of India. Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. 1958. ISBN 978-81-230-2284-0.
  9. "Bombay Symphony Conductor Convicted". The Bombay Chronicle. 27 April 1949. p. 2. Retrieved November 19, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  10. Johari, Aarefa (2016-08-13). "Remembering India's stellar pianist Olga Craen". Serenade. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  11. "Olga Craen's Pianoforte Recital". The Bombay Chronicle. 9 November 1948. p. 6. Retrieved November 19, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  12. Gomes, Iris C. F. "Banishing Musical Boundaries". Prutha Goa. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  13. Johari, Aarefa (February 1, 2014). "Fame, love and tragedy: Remembering India's stellar pianist Olga Craen". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
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