Anita Norskov Olsen
1930 -
Anita Olsen, now retired and living in Loma Linda, California, taught piano in two European colleges and at Loma Linda University, now La Sierra University. Olsen began her teaching career at age 21 as choir director at Vejlefjord Junior College in Denmark, where she taught until she accepted a position at Newbold College three years later. While at NC for the next sixteen years, she completed a teacher's degree (L.R.A.M.) in 1959 at the Royal Academy of Music and a performer's degree (L.T.C.L.) in 1964 at Trinity College of Music.
While Olsen was enrolled at TCM, she studied piano with Jean Merlow, continuing for an additional year after she had completed her degree. She subsequently studied with Norman Greenwood, Mary Boxall Boyd, and Walter Frey. Frey was a prominent Swiss pianist who specialized in performing mainly works by contemporary composers in his earlier years and J.S. Bach in his later years, when she studied with him.
Beginning in 1968, she taught piano full-time at Loma Linda University, a position she held until her retirement in 1990. In 1995, she was honored with a dinner and recital and the announcement that a scholarship endowment had been established in her name.
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