Olga Stezhko - Projects & Collaborations
Olga Stezhko's interest in chamber music was sparked by the Trio di Parma and the legendary Trio di Trieste with whom she studied as a teenager at the United World College of the Adriatic in Italy. As an avid chamber musician, Olga has performed at international festivals with various groups including the renowned cellist Ivan Monighetti and the late Peter Cropper of the Lindsay String Quartet. She continues to collaborate with talented young musicians and chamber groups around Europe.
Since 2018, Olga is a member of the Marsyas Trio.
The UK's leading flute, cello and piano ensemble has forged a place as a dynamic and innovative group, inspiring a generation of new works for their genre through their commissioning and recording initiatives, as well as bringing to the public lost and forgotten repertoire, in particular by women composers.
In October 2019 Olga Stezhko was invited to take part in the triennial Performers(') Present International Artistic Research Symposium in Singapore. She presented a lecture-recital 'And the Moon Descends - At the Crossroads of East and West', in which she drew on Debussy’s piano suites in a discussion on the boundaries between creative exchange and cultural exploitation in a historical and political context, reflecting also on the essence of musical performance.
For the 'Et la lune descend' album launch event in London, Olga Stezhko was thrilled to join forces with Byron Wallen, one of the most innovative and original jazz trumpet players in the world. They collaborated on piano - gamelan - trumpet arrangements of Debussy’s music.
The composer’s groundbreaking explorations in rhythm, colour and tonality were in big part inspired by traditional Indonesian gamelan music that he heard during the World Fair in Paris in 1889. Below is a video of their improvisation on Debussy's 'Pour la danseuse aux crotales' and 'Pour l'égyptienne' from the suite 'Six épigraphes antiques'.