Son of a Swedish father and Italian mother, Garrick Ohlsson began piano lessons at the comparatively late age of eight with Thomas Lishman at Westchester Conservatory. At thirteen he began five years of study at the Juilliard School of Music’s preparatory department with Sascha Gorodnitzki, continuing to study with Gorodnitzki as a full time student at Juilliard as well as with Rosina Lhévinne, but the greatest influence came from Olga Barabini with whom he took private lessons. She had been a pupil of Claudio Arrau and Josef Hofmann.

Whilst still at the Juilliard School Ohlsson won the Busoni Piano Competition in Bolzano and the Montreal International Piano Competition, and became the first American to win the International Chopin Piano Competi...