Pianist Olivia Sham is an active recitalist in the UK. In spite of her wider repertoire interests, Olivia is currently concentrating intensely on the music of Franz Liszt, and in addition to her work on modern piano, has been delving into the relatively uncharted but significant field of performing nineteenth-century piano music on historical instruments.
Born in Australia in 1985, Olivia completed a Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (The University of Sydney) on a scholarship of Outstanding Academic Achievement/Merit, where she studied with Elizabeth Powell, and graduated with First Class Honours and the University Medal. She was then awarded a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she completed a Master of Music with Professor Christopher Elton, graduating with Distinction. She is now a doctoral student at the Academy, researching Liszt performance practice with the support of an Overseas Research Award.
Olivia has won numerous prizes and awards. In 2003, she was keyboard winner of the Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year, and in 2006 was awarded the John Allison Piano Scholarship and was prizewinner in the Australian National Piano Award. She has also won third prize in the 18th A.M.A. Calabria International Piano Competition (Italy) and in the 4th International Concerto Competition (Hastings Music Festival, UK). In 2010, Olivia was awarded a Making Music Philip & Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists.
Olivia’s concerto experience includes performances with orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Ku-Ring-Gai Philharmonic Orchestra (Australia), Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (USA), Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra (Italy), and Finchley Chamber Orchestra and Guildford Symphony Orchestra (UK). She is also an enthusiastic and active chamber musician. Olivia is currently in the midst of a series of Liszt-centred recitals based at the Royal Academy of Music, including performances on various nineteenth-century pianos.
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Contact: ohsham@gmail.com
