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{{short description|Indian pianist (1913–1986)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Olga Craen
| honorific_suffix = [[LRAM]]
| image = OlgaAthaideCraen1936.png
| alt = A young South Asian woman with wavy dark hair side-parted and dressed to the nape
| caption = Craen, from a 1936 issue of ''The Indian Listener''

| birth_name = Olga Athaide
| birth_date = 1913
| birth_place = [[Goa]], [[Portuguese India]]
| death_date = {{death year and age|1986|1913}}
| death_place =
| occupation = {{hlist|Pianist|piano educator}}
| alma_mater = [[Royal Academy of Music]] (RAM)
| years_active = 1936–1980s
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) = {{marriage|Jules Craen|1939|1959|end=died}}
| relatives =
}}

'''Olga Athaide Craen''' [[LRAM]] ([[née]] '''Athaide'''; 1913 – 1986) was an Indian pianist and piano educator. She began her career in 1936 while a student at the [[Royal Academy of Music]] (RAM) in London. A finalist in the 1946 [[Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition|Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Music Competition]] held in Paris, she later taught piano in [[Bombay]], India.

== Early life ==
Olga Athaide was born in [[Goa]], the daughter of Franklin Herculano Athaide and Ana Maria Luisa da Conceicao Cordeiro.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vaz|first=J. Clement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DJLxYBYA-YC&dq=Olga+Athaide+Craen&pg=PA75|title=Profiles of Eminent Goans, Past and Present|date=1997|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-7022-619-2|pages=75|language=en}}</ref> Her mother was also a pianist. With a scholarship from the [[Sir Ratan Tata Trust]], Athaide trained with English pianist [[Tobias Matthay]] and completed her studies at the [[Royal Academy of Music]] in London in 1936.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=5 July 1936|title=A Bombay Success in London|page=14|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.14242/page/14/mode/2up?q=Olga+Athaide|access-date=November 19, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Surveyor|first=Suna|date=October 4, 1948|title=Laureate of International Musical Competition|url=https://roerichsmuseum.website.yandexcloud.net/SNR-DRR/SNR-016.pdf|journal=India|pages=8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Royal Academy of Music|url=https://archive.org/details/lram1934-1936|title=List of licentiates. Part VI. 1934 - 1936 (inclusive)|date=1936|pages=13|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

==Career==
During her student days in London, Craen performed on radio and on British and continental concert stages, including [[Wigmore Hall]] in 1936.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1936-06-19|title=Untitled brief item|pages=9|work=Evening Standard|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89218339/untitled-brief-item/|access-date=2021-11-19|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> "Miss Athaide's performance showed a warm musical nature," commented one reviewer, "allied with exceptionally brilliant technic and facility."<ref name=":1" /> In 1938, she gave a recital at the [[Cowasji Jehangir Hall]],<ref>{{Cite news|date=24 March 1938|title=Pianoforte Recital; Miss Olga Athaide's Impressive Performance|page=8|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.12462/page/8/mode/2up?q=Olga+Athaide|access-date=November 19, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and made her first of many appearances with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=":0" /> She returned to Cowasji Jehangir Hall in 1939, with a program of French composers, for the [[Alliance française|Alliance Française]] in Bombay.<ref>{{Cite news|date=23 March 1939|title=Pianoforte Recital of French Composers|page=5|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.12760/page/4/mode/2up?q=Olga+Athaide|access-date=November 19, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

In 1946, Craen was one of the finalists of the [[Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition|Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Music Competition]] in Paris.<ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cSWaDQAAQBAJ&dq=Olga+Athaide+Craen&pg=PT194|title=Women of India|date=1958|publisher=Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting|isbn=978-81-230-2284-0|language=en}}</ref> In 1948, she and her husband faced difficulties when they illegally subleased a flat in India. Both were arrested, and her husband was convicted;<ref>{{Cite news|date=27 April 1949|title=Bombay Symphony Conductor Convicted|page=2|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.13064/page/n1/mode/2up?q=Olga+Craen|access-date=November 19, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> he served a jail sentence of several years for the violation. The experience depleted their funds, and their health and reputations.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Johari|first=Aarefa|date=2016-08-13|title=Remembering India's stellar pianist Olga Craen|url=https://serenademagazine.com/series/music-education/fame-love-tragedy-remembering-indias-stellar-pianist-olga-craen/|access-date=2021-11-19|website=Serenade|language=en-GB}}</ref>

Craen gave public performances until the late 1950s,<ref>{{Cite news|date=9 November 1948|title=Olga Craen's Pianoforte Recital|page=6|work=The Bombay Chronicle|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.12903/page/7/mode/2up?q=Olga+Craen|access-date=November 19, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and taught piano in [[Bombay]] into the 1980s. One of her successful students was Marialena Fernandes.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gomes|first=Iris C. F.|title=Banishing Musical Boundaries|url=https://www.pruthagoa.com/|access-date=2021-11-19|website=Prutha Goa|archive-date=2021-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119185804/https://www.pruthagoa.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Athaide married Belgian violinist and conductor Jules Craen in 1939. She was widowed when Jules Craen died in 1959; she died from cancer in 1986. In 2013, to mark the centennial of her birth, the Olga & Jules Craen Foundation established the Young Musician of the Year competition.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Johari|first=Aarefa|date=February 1, 2014|title=Fame, love and tragedy: Remembering India's stellar pianist Olga Craen|url=http://scroll.in/article/655236/fame-love-and-tragedy-remembering-indias-stellar-pianist-olga-craen|access-date=2021-11-19|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://olgajulescraen.com/ The Olga & Jules Craen Foundation] website

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craen, Olga Athaide}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian women musicians]]
[[Category:Indian women pianists]]
[[Category:Indian pianists]]
[[Category:Educators from Goa]]
[[Category:Women educators from Goa]]
[[Category:Women musicians from Goa]]

Olga Craen - Revision history

Vilianahdm: Added.