Oksana Kolesnikova
Encyclopedia
Oksana Yurievna Kolesnikova (Oksana K, Pianist Oksana) (born 1978) is a Russian-American composer
, concert pianist and entrepreneur
. Her primary residence is in Los Angeles
, California
. In addition to concerts, she has performed regularly at the Polo Lounge
in The Beverly Hills Hotel since 2006 and recorded several CDs of classical, new age, and popular music including original compositions and collaborations with other international musical artists. She is the owner of Oksana’s School of Music, headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Her performances on YouTube
have been viewed more than one million times on her channel, "Oksanabella." In 2009, her public recognition increased dramatically when she was erroneously identified internationally in the media as the romantic partner of actor and director Mel Gibson
.
in Altai Siberia
, USSR. She studied classical piano in Russia
from the age of five. Following the break-up of the Soviet Union
, she immigrated with her family to the United States
in 1993 at the age of 15. Her family settled in St. Petersburg, Florida
. After entering St. Petersburg College, Kolesnikova won the Florida State Young Artists Symposium Competition in 1999. The award earned her a scholarship to attend Florida State University
. She graduated with honors from the School of Music, Florida State University, in August of 2001. She received her U.S. Citizenship on January 18, 2006.
). She was asked to perform on the television network and returned regularly, gathering a national following of fans.She was featured on Adrienne Arpel's HSN show.
In 2003, Kolesnikova became the first Russian-American female pianist to travel overseas to entertain the U.S. Troops. She made two world tours on behalf of the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department (MWR) of the U.S. Navy. She made a solo tour to entertain the U.S. Troops in September 2003, stopping in Italy
, Spain
and Greece
. In February 2004, she went to Asia
, including stops in Guam
, Korea
, Japan
, Okinawa, and Singapore
with Navy MWR. She also was invited to perform for U.N. officials in New York City. Following her tours, she moved to Los Angeles, California.
In 2006, Kolesnikova performed at the Salento
International Film Festival on opening night.
Since 2006, she has performed every week at the legendary Polo Lounge
in The Beverly Hills Hotel and continues to be in demand for private and charitable events.
She has recorded eight CDs of original, classical and popular music
and her own instructional video
for students of piano. Her “Free Floating” CD won the “2010 Best Classical Album of the Year” on Solo Piano.com. She has collaborated with other international musical artists for recordings, and her original compositions have been chosen by international artists to record on their own CDs.Her CD, "Best of Two Worlds," evolved from a collaboration with notable fine artist Jim Warren, who created his own art series based on Kolesnikova's compositions.
"Oksanabella," Kolesnikova's YouTube channel featuring her performances, has more than one million upload views from all over the world.
George's Collection. (2011) Classical
, New Age
. Composer: Oksana Kolesnikova
Magical Journey. (2010) Classical; New Age. Composer: Oksana Kolesnokova
Best of Two Worlds. (2007) Classical; Greatest Hits
Freedom - Dedicated to the U.S. Troops. (2004) Featuring: Byron J., Jim Buxton, Ugo De Ambrogio. Composers: Zequinha De Abreu, Paul Anka
, Ludwig Van Beethoven
, Eduardo Capua, Deep Purple
, Gareth Whitehurst, J. Byron, Oksana Kolesnikova, Francis Lai
, Oksana Kolesnikova / Jj /, Jimmy Page
, Matos Rodriguez, John Stafford Smith
, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Angelic Winters. (2002) Featuring: Erik Kolesnikov, Sofia Kolesnikova. Composers: Johann Sebastian Bach
, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Scott Joplin
, Vittorio Monti
, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
, Johann Pachelbel
, Sergei Rachmaninov, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
, Russian Traditional
Free Floating. (2002) Classical, New Age. Composer: Oksana Kolesnikova
Oksana. (2000) Featuring: Erik Kolesnikov, Sofia Kolesnikova. Composers: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin
, Muzio Clementi
, Claude Debussy
, Michal Kleofas Oginski
, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Rachmaninov, Robert Schumann
, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
, “The Piano Guy,” on HSN (Home Shopping Network) as a performer and a business woman, and featured as “Woman of the Week”on CBS Los Angeles. As a musician and teacher, she has been written about in The New York Times
and, as a performer and composer, has been featured on the cover of Hollywood Weekly and Imago Magazine, among others.
She gained additional, world-wide attention in April of 2009 after erroneous but wide-spread, initial news reports on television, the Internet
, and in print identified her as being romantically involved with the married actor and director Mel Gibson
. Kolesnikova's striking appearance, high-profile piano performances in Beverly Hills, and regular, close proximity to Gibson and other Hollywood power brokers during lunch meetings at the Polo Lounge led members of the media and press to assume without confirmation that she was Gibson's unidentified girlfriend known only as a musician named "Oksana." The media frenzy that followed created serious publicity and privacy issues for Kolesnikova, who was married to her manager, Alessandro Concas, for nine years and was four months pregnant at the time of the news stories.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, concert pianist and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. Her primary residence is in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. In addition to concerts, she has performed regularly at the Polo Lounge
Polo Lounge
The Polo Lounge is located inside the Beverly Hills Hotel at 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California.-Description:The Lounge has been described as "done up in peachy pink , with deep carpets and dark green booths, each booth featuring a plug-in phone...
in The Beverly Hills Hotel since 2006 and recorded several CDs of classical, new age, and popular music including original compositions and collaborations with other international musical artists. She is the owner of Oksana’s School of Music, headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Her performances on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
have been viewed more than one million times on her channel, "Oksanabella." In 2009, her public recognition increased dramatically when she was erroneously identified internationally in the media as the romantic partner of actor and director Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
.
Early years
Oksana Kolesnikova was born in BarnaulBarnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
in Altai Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, USSR. She studied classical piano in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
from the age of five. Following the break-up of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, she immigrated with her family to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1993 at the age of 15. Her family settled in St. Petersburg, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. After entering St. Petersburg College, Kolesnikova won the Florida State Young Artists Symposium Competition in 1999. The award earned her a scholarship to attend Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
. She graduated with honors from the School of Music, Florida State University, in August of 2001. She received her U.S. Citizenship on January 18, 2006.
Career
During her coursework at Florida State University and after graduation, Kolesnikova performed throughout Florida, where she was seen by an executive at HSN (Home Shopping NetworkHome Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...
). She was asked to perform on the television network and returned regularly, gathering a national following of fans.She was featured on Adrienne Arpel's HSN show.
In 2003, Kolesnikova became the first Russian-American female pianist to travel overseas to entertain the U.S. Troops. She made two world tours on behalf of the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department (MWR) of the U.S. Navy. She made a solo tour to entertain the U.S. Troops in September 2003, stopping in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. In February 2004, she went to Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, including stops in Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Okinawa, and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
with Navy MWR. She also was invited to perform for U.N. officials in New York City. Following her tours, she moved to Los Angeles, California.
In 2006, Kolesnikova performed at the Salento
Salento
Salento is the south-eastern extremity of the Apulia region of Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the main Italian Peninsula, sometimes described as the "heel" of the Italian "boot"...
International Film Festival on opening night.
Since 2006, she has performed every week at the legendary Polo Lounge
Polo Lounge
The Polo Lounge is located inside the Beverly Hills Hotel at 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California.-Description:The Lounge has been described as "done up in peachy pink , with deep carpets and dark green booths, each booth featuring a plug-in phone...
in The Beverly Hills Hotel and continues to be in demand for private and charitable events.
She has recorded eight CDs of original, classical and popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and her own instructional video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
for students of piano. Her “Free Floating” CD won the “2010 Best Classical Album of the Year” on Solo Piano.com. She has collaborated with other international musical artists for recordings, and her original compositions have been chosen by international artists to record on their own CDs.Her CD, "Best of Two Worlds," evolved from a collaboration with notable fine artist Jim Warren, who created his own art series based on Kolesnikova's compositions.
"Oksanabella," Kolesnikova's YouTube channel featuring her performances, has more than one million upload views from all over the world.
Discography
Smile Train Music Collection Volume One. (2011) Profits of this CD benefiting non-profit Smile Train. International artists interpret Kolesnikova. Featuring John Georgiadis, Silvia Vicinelli. Composer: Oksana KolesnikovaGeorge's Collection. (2011) Classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
. Composer: Oksana Kolesnikova
Magical Journey. (2010) Classical; New Age. Composer: Oksana Kolesnokova
Best of Two Worlds. (2007) Classical; Greatest Hits
Freedom - Dedicated to the U.S. Troops. (2004) Featuring: Byron J., Jim Buxton, Ugo De Ambrogio. Composers: Zequinha De Abreu, Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
, Ludwig Van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Eduardo Capua, Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
, Gareth Whitehurst, J. Byron, Oksana Kolesnikova, Francis Lai
Francis Lai
Francis Lai is a French accordionist, and composer noted for his film scores.While in his twenties, Francis Lai left home and went to Paris where he became part of the lively Montmartre music scene...
, Oksana Kolesnikova / Jj /, Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, Matos Rodriguez, John Stafford Smith
John Stafford Smith
John Stafford Smith was a British composer, church organist, and early musicologist. He was one of the first serious collectors of manuscripts of works by Johann Sebastian Bach....
, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
Angelic Winters. (2002) Featuring: Erik Kolesnikov, Sofia Kolesnikova. Composers: Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
, Vittorio Monti
Vittorio Monti
Vittorio Monti was an Italian composer, violinist, and conductor.Monti was born in Naples, where he studied violin and composition at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella...
, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Johann Pachelbel
Johann Pachelbel
Johann Pachelbel was a German Baroque composer, organist and teacher, who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most...
, Sergei Rachmaninov, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
, Russian Traditional
Free Floating. (2002) Classical, New Age. Composer: Oksana Kolesnikova
Oksana. (2000) Featuring: Erik Kolesnikov, Sofia Kolesnikova. Composers: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer. Born in Italy, he spent most of his life in England. He is best known for his piano sonatas, and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum...
, Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Michal Kleofas Oginski
Michal Kleofas Oginski
Michał Kleofas Ogiński was a Polish composer, diplomat and politician, Lithuanian Grand Treasurer and Russian senator.-Life:...
, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Rachmaninov, Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Media coverage
International media coverage of Kolesnikova includes television appearances on PBS with Scott HoustonScott Houston
Scott Houston is a piano player, author, teacher and television personality who hosts and co-produces the Public Television series The Piano Guy. He also is the featured performer on a Public Television pledge special titled Play Piano in a Flash...
, “The Piano Guy,” on HSN (Home Shopping Network) as a performer and a business woman, and featured as “Woman of the Week”on CBS Los Angeles. As a musician and teacher, she has been written about in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and, as a performer and composer, has been featured on the cover of Hollywood Weekly and Imago Magazine, among others.
She gained additional, world-wide attention in April of 2009 after erroneous but wide-spread, initial news reports on television, the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and in print identified her as being romantically involved with the married actor and director Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
. Kolesnikova's striking appearance, high-profile piano performances in Beverly Hills, and regular, close proximity to Gibson and other Hollywood power brokers during lunch meetings at the Polo Lounge led members of the media and press to assume without confirmation that she was Gibson's unidentified girlfriend known only as a musician named "Oksana." The media frenzy that followed created serious publicity and privacy issues for Kolesnikova, who was married to her manager, Alessandro Concas, for nine years and was four months pregnant at the time of the news stories.