AMELKINA-VERA Olga

Olga Amelkina-Vera’s works have been called “the discovery of the evening” (Sarasota Herald- Tribune), “brilliant” (The Royal Gazette), “incandescent” and “hypnotic” (Fort Worth Star Telegram). A guitarist and composer, she grew up in Belarus and moved to the United States in 1997. Olga holds a Bachelor of Arts degree Summa Cum Laude from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in guitar performance with a minor in music history from the University of North Texas, and a Masters degree in composition from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she studied with Xi Wang, Lane Harder, Robert Frank, and Kevin Hanlon.

Her SMU thesis composition, Submerged Worlds for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion, won the 2017-2018 American Prize in its division. Her comic micro-opera All That Glitters won third prize in the theater/film/opera/dance division of the same competition. Olga was chosen as the Irving Symphony Orchestra student composer-in-residence for the 2016-2017 season. This honor included a performance of one of her orchestral works on the ISO concert series finale. In recognition of her academic and creative accomplishments, in May 2017 Olga was inducted into the national music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda.

Olga won first prize in the Japan Guitar Ensemble Composition Competition for her quartet Cattywampus Rompus (Texas Tarantella) and was interviewed in Gendai Guitar during her trip to Tokyo. She was the first prize winner of the Austin Classical Guitar Society Composition Competition in 2009 and 2012 for her guitar quartets Ninochka and Nebulae. Her compositions are published by Les Productions d’Oz, including two works selected for the Frank Koonce Series. Olga’s guitar works are regularly performed and recorded by Matt Palmer, Adam Holzman, Thibaut Garcia, Weimar Guitar Quartet, Quattro Palos Guitar Quartet, Kithara Duo, and many other professional and student ensembles and soloists. She is in demand as a conductor and artist-in-residence, frequently getting invitations to conduct her music with guitar orchestras throughout the country, and work with large and chamber ensembles at music festivals.

An active performer, Olga maintains a busy touring and teaching schedule as a soloist and with Kithara Duo, her guitar duo with Fernand Vera. The duo was formed in 2002; since then, they have been performing nationally as well as in Europe and South America. Kithara Duo’s critically acclaimed recordings Beings (2011) and Lingua Franca (2015) feature some of Olga’s original compositions and transcriptions for guitar duo. Kithara Duo have been invited to perform and teach at the Guitar Foundation of America Convention and Competition, St. Louis Classical Guitar Great Artist Series, East Carolina University Guitar Festival, Troy University Guitar Festival, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, Guitar Sarasota, Texas A&M International Guitar Symposium, Lone Star Guitar Festival, Clark University, Chapman University, and many other venues.

Olga is a passionate and devoted teacher. She was named Associate Faculty of the Year in 2013 by Collin College in Plano, Texas. She is now full-time faculty at Collin College, where she teaches music history, theory, composition, and guitar. For more information, please visit:
kitharaduo.com
www.olgaamelkinavera.com
and facebook.com/kitharaduo.

Press reviews:
On “The Heaven’s Hundred”:
“Brilliantly weaving together the sounds of Cossack rural and religious tradition with those of anger, civil disturbance, people’s desperation and the destruction of innocence, this Chaconne-sized piece releases encroaching patterns of chaos which proceed to overwhelm its own underlying structures. This is a grim metaphor for the plight of the Ukraine. I also think that what we heard here is the birth of a new major work, important in its way as Picasso’s Guernica.”
The Royal Gazette

“The real discovery of the evening were three original compositions by Olga Amelkina-Vera, who gently stretched the expectations sharing her delightful musical imagination.”
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

“Of two recent compositions by Amelkina-Vera, subtle effects defined the three character pieces in “Beings:” the low, menacing huff of the mysterious Minotaur; the harp-like strums of incandescent Sylphs; the hypnotic patterns unraveling across Salamander.”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram