Master Series Concerts & Tickets
Guest Artist Janina Fialkowska
Master Series 7 - May 9, 2009Montreal born Janina Fialkowska began her piano studies with her mother at age four. At age 17, she graduated from the Université de Montréal and became the pupil of the renowned Yvonne Lefebure in Paris. In New York she completed her studies at the Juilliard School of Music with Sasha Gorodnitzki, later becoming his assistant for five years. Her career was launched by the legendary Arthur Rubinstein after her prize winning performances at the first international piano competition held in his name in Israel in 1974.
Janina Fialkowska has performed with all the major North American orchestras including the Chicago, Pittsburgh, Houston, Montreal and Toronto Symphony Orchestras and the Cleveland, Philadelphia and National Arts Center Orchestras. Elsewhere she has appeared with such prestigious orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw, the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the Warsaw Philharmonic and the French and Belgium National Radio Orchestras as well as the Hong Kong, the Osaka and Israel Phiharmonic Orchestras. She has worked with such conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kyril Kondrashin, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Metha, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and many others.
Famous for her interpretations of Chopin, Mozart and Liszt, Ms Fialkowska was chosen in 1990 to perform the world premiere of the recently discovered 3rd piano concerto of Liszt with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has recorded all 3 Liszt concertos, as well as the Paderewski and Moszkowski piano concertos, the Chopin concertos, sonatas, impromptus, etudes and a CD devoted to the music of Karol Szymanowski. Her latest CD, of Mozart piano concertos was released to highest critical acclaim.
In January, 2002 at the onset of a major European tour encompassing eight different countries, Ms. Fialkowska’s career was brought to a dramatic halt by the discovery of a tumour in her left arm. After successful surgery to remove the cancer, she underwent further surgery in January 2003; a rare muscle-transfer procedure. After 18 months of performing the Ravel and Prokofiev “concertos for the left hand” which she transcribed for her right hand she has resumed her two-handed career beginning with a tremendously successful and highly emotional recital held in Germany in January 2004.
Janina Fialkowska was the founder of the award winning “Piano Six” project wherein a group of internationally renowned Canadian pianists devoted a period of time every year to giving recitals and master classes in the smaller, far-flung communities of Canada. She also initiated “Piano Plus”, the expanded successor to “Piano Six”.
The 1992 CBC documentary “The World of Janina Fialkowska” was awarded a special Jury Prize at the 1992 San Francisco International Film Festival. In the fall of 2002 she was appointed “Officer of the Order of Canada”. In May 2006 she received an honorary doctorate from Acadia University, Nova Scotia. The 2007/2008 season saw her touring three continents with engagements in Germany, England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, the US and Canada as well as Japan. The current season starts with a new recording of solo works by Chopin followed by a busy touring schedule on both sides of the Atlantic.