Olga Samaroff

Olga Samaroff was born Lucie Hickenlooper in San Antonio, TX, and began her piano studies with her mother at the age of three. By age 12, Lucie had outpaced anyone in Texas who could offer her more piano lessons and was taken to Europe by her grandmother. Offered a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire (the first American woman so honored), she studied with Ernest Hutcheson, Antoine Marmontel, and Elie Délaborde, among others. She made her debut in Paris and returned to New York, in triumph, for her American debut in 1905. On the suggestion of her manager, she changed her nam...