Who's that blue-haired Ukrainian violinist in the Atlanta Symphony? Meet Olga Shpitko

On stage, Olga Shpitko stands out. She is, for now, the only blue-haired musician in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Born in L’viv, Shpitko studied there and in Moscow, Paris and Baltimore before joining the ASO’s first violin section in 2006. 

This spring she visited GPB straight from rehearsal, bright red violin case in tow, to sit down with Sarah Zaslaw. She chatted about her hometown, starting violin by chance, playing in the streets and subways of France, what’s behind the hair color, and some breathtaking spots she’s explored around the globe. 

Their conversation follows. It also airs June 4 through June 7 on The ASO on GPB.

Interview Highlights

On L’viv 

It's a really beautiful city. I think official date of beginning of the city is 1256, something like that. They know about the city being burnt at that year and it was visible from far, far away, so apparently there was quite a big settlement by then.

The city changed so many different hands in the 20th century. So my grandparents were born in Lemberg, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I. And then my parents were born in Lwów, which was Polish way to name the city before World War II. I was born technically in Lvov, Russian way, when it was under, we call it now, Russian occupation in Soviet Union. And now the city is called L’viv. So here you have the history of the city. It's a typical Western European city. Some parts resemble a little bit Prague, a little bit of Krakow. When I was in Salzburg many years ago, it reminded me of my city as well. 

On her native language and others

I’m from Ukrainian family, and since my part of Ukraine was annexed by Soviet Union rather late after World War II, we kept our Ukrainian language and our Ukrainian culture. The other parts of Ukraine were not as lucky, so you have much more contamination over there, I would call it that way. 

I guess I'm still fluent in Russian, though I refuse to speak it, for obvious reasons. I used to be fluent in Polish because we actually live very close to Polish border and a lot of literature which was not accessible in Soviet Union, I would read in Polish language, because that's the only way I could get my hands on the pieces I wanted to read. Also, well, you've heard my English. I speak some French since I lived in Paris for a year and a half. 

On why violin

I’m not from musical family, actually from medical family on my mother's side, but my mom always loved music. When she was young, she dreamt about playing instrument, but she lost her father in World War II. They were really poor. It was a very difficult time, Stalin times, etc. So there was no resources for her to study instrument. 

When I was five years old, I was taken to music school, which was non-professional music school for amateurs. The idea was that I would start playing piano, because my mom had ideas that violin is too difficult. Since my mom was at work, my grandmother took me there, and they had many applicants for piano and very few for violin. They saw that there is defenseless child with grandmother. So they decided to trick me into playing violin, and they asked me if I would play a violin. I said, sure. What did I know. Right? And that's how I became a violinist. Just by chance, really.

On an early musical memory 

There was a small LP record my parents had of Jascha Heifetz playing Zigeunerweisen, Chausson Poème, Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saens. I ran it to shreds because I absolutely loved how he sounded, how expressive he was, how much passion and soul was put into that performance. 

On getting serious (or not) about violin

There were many times when I decided I would rather quit. The thing is that the way education in Soviet Union was made, they kind of put you on a certain track very early and it's very hard to derail from that track. So I basically entered professional-style music school. It would probably be equivalent of magnet school in United States. Apparently it was hard to get in. My parents thought that I would not be accepted, so they took a chance. And then I got accepted, and then I had to deal with that. Since I was already in that professional music school and I showed some inclination to music, I kind of went on that track and it was hard to get off of it. 

When I was, I think, 15 or 16, I rebelled and I said that I don't want to play it anymore. I wanted to actually go into theory. Because I actually like theoretical part of music. I really like understanding how things function, how they build, what the structure of anything is. But somehow I didn't proceed, I guess I chickened out and I stayed with violin. And then I entered Moscow Conservatory, and there also had another thought of quitting, and then I still stayed, through my life. But for real, I started to own it when I was already in Paris. I was 25. 

On busking in Paris 

It’s as simple as making my money, moonlighting, pretty much, in the Paris Metro, in the Paris streets. That's actually how I got to go to Paris. Because a friend of mine, at some point when I was still in Moscow, offered a gig — he offered that I would go to Paris for summer and play on the Paris streets and in the Metro with a group of musicians, and I could make some money. Early '90s in post-Soviet Union were absolutely brutal financially. I was actually doing my Ph.D. program and I was working full time in the orchestra and my salary was equivalent of $50 a month. The salary was paid every two weeks, and very often we would come for salary and there would be no money. So you never knew when you're going to get actually paid. So life was pretty difficult, and obviously I needed money. 

So I agreed and I went to Paris and I played for I think two or three months on the streets, in the subway. It was quite brutal because we were playing like 8-9 hours a day, and the heat, and fighting homeless people, fighting police. It was a quartet and the quartet had a name; it was called International Quartet of Paris! The following year I went and I tried to enter any conservatory and kind of get myself started there.

Caption

Atlanta Symphony first violinist Olga Shpitko, pre-blue hair

Credit: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

On memorable ASO performances or repertoire 

There was some with Robert Spano. I remember Dr. Atomic. It was really memorable because I thought that I'm not going to like it and actually I really fell in love with his piece. Usually that's how it has happened, whenever I think I don't like something and then I fall in love with it. We were doing also recording of Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 and I really hated it and then it kind of clicked with me, and I remember Cecylia Arzewski was playing solo. It was really beautiful. Also Roberto Abbado conducted several different performances. I think was one of them was Schubert Ninth Symphony, which was absolutely stunning. Still remember it. 

On her blue hair

Maybe it's like a midlife crisis, I don't know. Actually, for me, it's a reaction on COVID to some extent, because there was quite a bit of routine in COVID. Also, I feel like our current fashion and current life kind of goes towards monochromatic, grayish, black-and-white scheme, so I really missed color. Also my hair started to go gray, and I'm not ready to go gray, but I tried to do highlights and I don't have blonde personality so it didn't fit me. So I decided what else can I do, as low-maintenance as possible but to make me smile whenever I look myself in the mirror. And I checked my contract, it's okay, it's allowed, there is no stipulations on non-natural color hair. So that's how it became blue, and it still makes me smile when I look at myself in the mirror. 

On remote places she recommends

Oh, this planet is so incredible. It's so beautiful. Gosh, there is so much. Well, if we go south, South America, Patagonia is absolutely breathtaking. It's so incredible. And there are places which don't have many tourists and some places you rarely even see people. Incredible. Magellan Strait is absolutely stunning. Antarctica is absolutely breathtaking. I am scuba diver. So if you go underwater, it becomes absolutely magical there as well. There are absolutely phenomenal diving places in Caribbean, in South Pacific, like around Indonesia, Philippines, they have absolutely phenomenal coral reefs and phenomenal creatures living there. Now, if you go north, I haven't been to Alaska, but if you go to northern Norway, Svalbard, absolutely breathtaking. 

But I’m just scratching surface of where I would love to go. There are a few more places where I’ve been to, but there are so many places I would love to go.