Ilona Oltuski

Founder and Managing Director at GetClassical in Schools

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Journalist and member of MCANA

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Music Criticism: 

New Look, New Direction:

German-born American music journalist, pianist, and entrepreneur, Ilona Oltuski has been the founder and the artistic director of GetClassical since 2008. A member of the Music Critics Association of North America, Mrs. Oltuski has written articles for Classical Post, Naxos Deutschland, Sequenza21, Listen Magazine, Chamber Music Today, Moment Magazine, and PianoNews Magazine, among others.

Prior to becoming a passionate advocate for classical music in the United States, Mrs. Oltuski studied Piano Performance at the Hoch’sche Conservatory and earned Ph.D. in Art History from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Her dissertation on the Bezalel School of Jerusalem has received international acclaim and served as the kickstart for pursuing an independent music journalist career.

Her personal online publication, GetClassical has been named “The Blog of the Month” by premier British publication Gramophone Magazine. Along with numerous international achievements, her articles have been featured in Staccato Verlag’s “Gespräche mit Pianisten” and events she produced have been recommended by Harper’s Bazaar. Throughout years of spotlighting the most cutting-edge developments within the classical music sphere of New York City, Ilona has been invited to cover the programs of numerous international festivals, including Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and Progetto Martha Argerich Festival in Switzerland.

As a concert producer, Mrs. Oltuski has presented artists like Mischa Maisky, Michael Brown, Roman Rabinovitch, Paul Huang, Ching-Yun Hu, Daumants Liepins on the stages of some of the most iconic alternative concert venues of Manhattan: Le Poisson Rouge, St.John’s in the Village, Zinc Bar, India House, and Gramercy Park Hotel’s Rose Bar among others.

Mrs. Oltuski has also served as a jury member for numerous international competitions, such as Anselmo Academy Annual Competition, the Tsai Performance Center Concerto Competition at Boston University, the Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy Competition, and the George Gershwin International Music Competition.