#24: Olga Scheps - Beauty Is Eternal

Starlet Pianist Olga Scheps Opens up on Passion, Motherhood, Honesty & Enemies

“If I can’t relate to music then I don’t play it, because it’s like the chemistry between two people. You understand each other or you don’t understand each other, and if you don’t, then you can work on that – but… why?”

Olga Scheps is the face of modern classical music. Not only is she a prolific pianist who has reached number 1 on the German charts and released 9 CDs, she also has a massive social media following and has helped bring a love of classical music to a young generation.

I sat down with Olga in her studio in the heart of Cologne to discuss her passion for the piano, how she recently became a mother, why she values honesty and hence has enemies, the process for recording albums and more.

Olga began playing piano at age 5. Born in Moscow, her parents moved to Germany in 1992 where she studied at the Cologne Academy of Music. She won the German musical competition Jugend Musziert (Youth Makes Movement) in 1999 which led to her performing at the Rheingau Music Festival followed by the Ruhr Piano Festival, where she still performs.

Olga has been signed to Sony Classical since 2009 and has just recorded her 9th album, made together with the Kuss Quartett. She previously reached number 1 on the German charts with her 2016 album, which featured Eric Satie. She also won the ECHO award, in the category of “Young artist of the Year” for her album “Chopin.” Her 2019 album “Melody” was nominated for two Opus Klassik Awards.

Olga has worked with Arie Vardi, Dmitri Bashkirov, Andrei Gavrilov and Alfred Brende and is advised by her former professor, Prof. Pavel Gililov as well as her parents, who are both pianists. She is also a member of the select group of Steinway Artists.

Her repertoire is incredibly diverse. She performs not only famous classics such as Bach and Tchaikovsky, but also songs by modern musicians like the Aphex Twins and Ludovico Einaudi and even Scooter songs such as Hyper Hyper.

You can read more about Olga on her website olgascheps.com
Follow Olga on her Instagram here or on her Facebook here