Biography

p e r f o r m e r

Olga Krashenko had her first piano lessons at the age of 7 studying at Kaliningrad Music School. She then continued her piano studies at the Kaliningrad College of Music, the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and the St. Petersburg University. Olga performed in Russia as a pianist interpreting her own musical compositions as well as those of Messiaen and Ligeti.

Her vocal lessons began in Russia at the age of 11 at the Kaliningrad Music School. Then Olga studied voice with Nina Martynovna Kovalenko and took part in some concerts. In 2023, she went to an overtone singing course of Roberto Laneri in Chiusi della Verna, Italy.

Starting from the time she studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Olga began to learn to play other musical instruments in order to create demo versions for her musical compositions. Studying the flute then led to a meeting with Robert Dick, the inventor of the glissando flute. Olga began to actively use the glissando flute in her musical practice. Olga's interest in playing the viola led her to the unique experience of participating as a violist in a performance of Stockhausen's "Kurzwellen", which was then released by Mode Records.

In 2015 Olga participated in the workshop on structured improvisation with Thollem McDonas and Yochk'o Seffer. The result of this workshop was a concert in Paris, and in 2016 the ACEL label released a CD "Rencontres Électriques".

Olga Krashenko has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at numerous international music festivals for contemporary music such as the Mode Records curated concert series at "The Stone" in New York (USA), "Stockhausen's Summer Courses and Concerts" in Kuerten (Germany), the "Festival for the Liberation of Sound and Image" in Paris (France), the "Nuovi Orizzonti Sonori" (Italy), the "Dias de Musica Electroacustica" (Portugal), the International New Music Festival "Sound Ways" in Saint-Petersburg (Russia), the "Time of music: fin de siècle" festival in Saint-Petersburg (Russia) and others... Besides performing her own music for voice and / or for flute / viola / piano, she has worked with composers such as Paul Mefano, Armando Corridore, Jean-Baptiste Favory, Rodolphe Bourotte, Roberto Laneri and others. In the context of her performances with the C.L.S.I., she has worked frequently with the conductor, Paul Mefano, founder of the ensemble 2e2m. As a performer she is on CDs of the labels Mode Records, Stradivarius and Acel.

Besides performing, Olga Krashenko has made many multi-track recordings where all instrumental and vocal parts were played by her. Some examples are the 8 channel tape part of "Der Geier" by Paul Mefano, all tracks of the 1st, 4th and 5th scenes of the opera "Macondo", composed by Olga, herself. In addition, she also performs on all tracks of her compositions "Up the down Staircase" for four voices, "Five Breaths" for five performers who vocalize different noise / breathing sounds, as well as all tracks (excluding solo parts) of her opera "Tintagiles".

Featured works

2024

Book "Research on Musical Holes"

In my book "Research on Musical Holes", I developed a method of musical thinking that goes beyond traditional musicology. The book researches the contradictions, paradoxes and missing elements in music as a concept and all extra-musical elements connected with it. Many such things are usually not addressed in studies that try to present music theory in the form of clear, precise distinctions. In this book, familiar musical concepts are subjected to deconstruction, a search for contradictions and ambiguities, and discussions about what is missing (and, in general, about the concept of freedom due to absence). Musical holes will be identified and made analyzable. If one is sure that the definition of music and its components, as well as, the process of its creation and the localization of its sounds in space and time, are all somethings that are very obvious and simple, then this book will give rise to doubts, rethinking, and a radical new look at music as concept and sonic phenomenon. This could be the equivalent of certain logical paradoxes in philosophy and the unconsciousness as blind spots and half-truths in Lacanian psychoanalysis.

2023

Opera "Tintagiles"

The video-opera «Tintagiles» is based on the play of Maurice Maeterlinck «The Death of Tintagiles». The video-opera genre combines sound and motion by creating a fusion made with synesthesia in the case of this composition. The opera includes 7 characters with electronics (multi-channel tape) and a special video. The length of the opera is 2 h. 30 min. The form consists of 5 acts as well as a prelude, a postlude and 4 interludes.

2021

CD of the opera "Macondo"

Sound poetry libretto written by Olga Krashenko, inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Opera for 4 soloist-instrumentalists, choir, ensembles, orchestras and concrete sounds. Soloists: members of the ensemble C.L.S.I. (Circle for the Liberation of Sound and Image). Vocal, instrumental and concrete sounds composed and recorded by Olga Krashenko. The opera is dedicated to the memory of the writer G.G. Marquez.

Article

Synesthesia of Sound in Colour and Motion

on the example of video-opera “Tintagiles”

If at the neurophysiological level we are dealing with the borderline state of different zones and their intersection, which is typical for synesthesia, then in the field of art, the genre of opera already initially allows you to combine different ways of perception into one experience, thus overcoming the resulting separation and fragmentation of specializations in art and recreating the synthesis with the help of modern means and technologies.

Today opera continues to be relevant, and not only within the walls of opera houses, but also beyond them. The opera “Tintagiles” based on Maurice Maeterlinck's play “The Death of Tintagiles” is an example of a video opera (2017-2022) in which textual, musical and light-color symbols are synesthetically combined with the help of modern sound and video recording technologies and where their interweaving covers the whole range of possible associations, from the literal to the distant and abstract.