Eminent pianist and teacher Olga Athaide Craen left an indelible mark on the Western classical music scene in Bombay which continues to reap the rewards of her tireless work in music education for a significant part of the 20th century. She came to the city from Goa and remained here all her life to shape generations of pianists.

After being mentored by Edward Behr, conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, Craen went on to train with English pianist and teacher Tobias Matthay and completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1936. Her performances in Mumbai would attract a multitude of listeners to the Taj Mahal Palace and Regal Cinema. Legend has it that it was at a recital at the latter that the Belgian violinist and conductor Jules Craen saw her play for the first time and was enamoured. They married in 1939. The couple remained closely associated with the world of orchestral music in Mumbai.

The Olga & Jules Craen Foundation was established in 2012 to honour their memory. For Craen’s birth centenary in 2013, the foundation instituted the Young Musician of the Year (YMOY) award to promote Indian talent by providing training, financial aid and performance opportunities to a selected musician for the duration of one year. 

The upcoming annual concert at the NCPA will feature Young Musician of the Year’s from 2013 to 2024, including Tanay Joshi (piano), Meagan Pandian (harp), Shirish Malhotra (flute) Kabir Dabholkar (classical guitar), Anuvrat Choudhury (piano), Samyuktha Rajagopal (violin), Fateen Ahmed (piano), Neil Sajnani (piano) and countertenor Subin Sebastian. The programme will also feature the Symphony Orchestra of India and two former students of Craen: pianist Marialena Fernandes and Blossom Mendonca, Founder and Director of the choral group Living Voices. 

Mendonca, who has been teaching piano for 40 years, recounts her first encounter with Craen. She commanded the room as royalty does and the queen of the keyboard that she was. “Olga was an excellent pianist, disciplined and systematic in her approach and expected the same of her students. Her knowledge and ability to teach harmony was superlative,” she tells us. 

Michelle Athaide, another former student who is on the foundation’s committee, says, “Lessons always began with Hanon’s exercises, and she could tell after two bars if I had practised. Since the day my book was flung, and I was asked to leave, I learned to always go prepared for a lesson.”

Zinnia Mehta Khajotia, the Managing Trustee of the foundation, notes, “Olga was imperious, oftentimes impatient, sometimes knocking our knuckles with a pencil. Technique and hand position were deeply ingrained in us. She would holler from a distance when wrong notes were played, often citing her husband: ‘There will be that one person in the audience who will hear the wrong note. You are playing for them’.”

Since 1958, when she developed carpal tunnel syndrome in her left hand, Craen devoted all her time to teaching. Six days after her husband’s demise in 1959, she was at her pupils’ concert at the Taj Mahal Palace, which had become a much-awaited tradition. 

Craen’s legacy lives on through her students, who went on to become performers, teachers, conductors, music critics and impresarios within national and international music circles. They echo the sentiment that she was a tough taskmaster, harsh even. Her tutelage, however, was remarkable and her firm hand stays with them after all these years.