The profile of the month is chosen by the MSIF editor from those submitted.

Olga Bobrovnikova

Year of diagnosis: 2001
Occupation: Concert Pianist
Country: Russia

http://www.bobrovnikova.com

PIANO DIVA WITH MS
I met Olga Bobrovnikova just four years ago – in the year before her diagnosis of MS.

At this time she was teaching piano and working as a Classical Music Consultant for a record distributor. I became one of the clients that she advised about building their classical CD collections. The very first record she sold me was her own recording of Greig and Tchaikovski!
Our friendship flourished and my collection grew – always the best version of any work, often two or three versions!

The Saturday meetings to review and purchase CDs were a delight, as Olga’s originality of thought, sense of humour and unrestrained views were a breath of fresh air in every week.

Then one day, while reviewing a CD of Grigory Ginsburg, Olga found a performance of a Concert Paraphrase of Tchaikovski’s Opera, Eugene Onegin, by a unknown composer called Paul Pabst. Neither of us knew at that moment, that Olga’s life was to change so dramatically.

Immediately, Olga set out to find Paul Pabst and his music. Now, some four years later, we are still researching, interpreting, performing and recording the works of this incredible Pianist Musician …. but that is another story.

We worked together on the interpretation of the Eugene Onegin Paraphrase and, although I am not a musician, I was able to contribute what I, the audience, felt and heard and wanted – this has now turned into a working partnership, understanding of the art of performance with its physical, mental and emotional triangle…….again another subject!

Then three months later, when I heard Olga perform in concert for the first time, she played the Eugene Onegin Paraphrase that we had worked on. Nothing had prepared me for the experience of Olga in performance mode – I was mesmerised by the intensity of her musicality, dazzled by the virtuosity of her tiny fingers and blown away by her ability to play three simultaneous voices with only two hands! Here was a unique and special talent that matched her personality.

Within two months of this concert, having found several Pabst scores including an un-played Piano Concerto, we had begun to discuss a career plan to bring her back to the International Concert stage. Then disaster struck!

Olga had memory lapses and some coordination problems and had to cancel a concert.

In a phone call between Brussels and the Maldives where I was working I was told the shattering news
– that this human dynamo this musical warrior had multiple sclerosis –

What happened next is thanks the indomitable spirit of Olga and three things:
– weekly Interferon treatment
– the music of Paul Pabst
– the teamwork of two natural problem solvers

After three years of treatment it is impossible to unravel which was the most important. One thing we do understand was that the decision to confront and publicly admit to MS was a fundamental, but it was also a monumental decision for a virtuoso concert pianist.

The key to piano concert performance is freedom of expression, quite impossible if one is reliant on reading a score. Olga typically has some four hours of music committed to her “performance” memory; also several hundred works which she describes as on “Hard Disk”. These simply require several days work to prepare for performance. This feat of memory would be incredible for anyone, but for a person with MS it is almost incomprehensible. It is a ticking time bomb which drives her to continue to learn the most challenging repertoire and play every performance as if it were her last.

The decision to admit publicly to having MS has led quite naturally to performing to raise the profile of the disease and to raise funds for treatment and research. This started to happen quite by accident when Olga discovered that there was a European MS Platform Symposium in Malta on exactly the same day as her Concert in St James Cavalier in Valletta.

When she offered to play for the Symposium Olga didn’t realise just what she would have to overcome. After her concert in Valletta, Olga visited the Radisson Hotel to review arrangements for the lunchtime recital the following day and she was immediately confronted with the harsh realities of what the disease can be: many persons in wheelchairs, with crutches and sticks. The shock was almost too great as Olga had watched her own father deteriorate with Parkinson’s disease.

It was the moment that my management role was defined. I simply asked Olga one question - Do you want to help? The following lunchtime Olga played most of the performance in tears. As she left Malta she was overcome with the warmth and feeling of delegates she met at the airport as we all departed. Since that day she has never doubted what she would do.

This year since Malta has been remarkable. Olga has played to audiences of neurologists in Athens, Paris, Megeve, Montreal and Prague. The distinction of being the very first artist with MS to be invited play in the Jacqueline Du Pré Music Centre in St Hilda’s College Oxford is something that Olga is very proud of. As an artist she identifies with the criticism of professors to “stop moving about” and with Du Pré’s total freedom of performance. In musical terms Olga has few Idols – Arthur Rubenstein, Horowitz, Emil Gilels conductor Mendelberg and certainly Jacqueline Du Pre; all musicians that played from the heart as free spirits.

In addition to playing for MS, Olga has played a fundraising concert in Grenoble for Bir Sheeva Hospital in Israel, spent one week recording the Lost Piano Concerto of Paul Pabst in Moscow, continues to teach and play local concerts.

How is this possible on weekly interferon injections? With some difficulty, as a heavy travel schedule and fixed concert dates require careful injection scheduling. While Olga does not undertake concerts within 36 hours of injection she uses that time to learn new music and practice. Being occupied helps her to manage the side effects of the interferon.

So what plans does Olga have?

– The first Public performances of Paul Pabst Piano Concerto and Trio. The recording of the remainder of the Pabst Piano works.
– The revelations of the story of Paul Pabst, Tchaikovski and Rachmaninoff.
– Projects on her Triangle of Performance Method for Musical Therapy, Researching and recording CDs for mood control. This work coming directly from Olga’s qualification and experience in Musical Therapy for children with difficulties – part of her postgraduate studies at the Gnessin Institute and now part of her every day teaching.

Olga studied at the Gnessin School moving on to graduate from the Moscow Conservatoire with a degree in Chamber Performance. Then she continued her postgraduate studies while assistant class master at the Genessin Institute, to be awarded a higher diploma in Musical Therapy.

These studies were nearly interrupted by a neurological event (temporary paralysis below the waist) which some 18 years later she realised was her first flare.

What else is there to know about this phenomenon? The rebel that married a star violinist some 20 years her senior and fled the Soviet Union with a two-year old son to become a refugee in Brussels. Divorced, remarried, widowed, a very proud mother of the son – now 16 years old.

She plays her first solo concert in the UK in September (she played Wigmore hall as piano/violin duo some 15 years ago). She has been invited to fundraise in Philadelphia later this year. She has been invited back to the Moscow Conservatoire for a recital and to give a master class on piano performance in October. She plays for the Belgian-French MS league in October.

Music is her life…The audience her inspiration…

She says “You can interpret a work many ways but the best way is how the audience want it”. So she plays and enjoys every performance with her audience.


Paul Mossman

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