soloists
Janina Fialkowska, piano
The exceptional artistry and brilliant virtuosity of Janina Fialkowska have won her enthusiastic accolades from audiences and critics worldwide. Celebrated for her interpretations of the classical and romantic repertoire, she is particularly distinguished as one of the great interpreters of the piano works of Chopin and Liszt. She has also won acclaim as a champion of the music of twentieth-century Polish composers, both in concert and on disc.
Born to a Canadian mother and a Polish father in Montreal, Janina Fialkowska started to study the piano with her mother at the age of five. Eventually she entered the Ecole de Musique Vincent d'Indy, studying under the tutelage of Mlle. Yvonne Hubert. The University of Montreal awarded her both advanced degrees of “Baccalaureat” and “Maitrise” by the time she was only 17. In 1969, her career was greatly advanced by two events: winning the first prize in the Radio Canada National Talent Festival and traveling to Paris to study with Yvonne Lefebure. One year later, she entered the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where she first studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki and later became his assistant for five years. She launched her career in 1974 after her prize-winning performance at Arthur Rubinstein’s inaugural Master Piano Competition in Israel.
She has performed with the foremost North American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony as well as with all of the principal Canadian orchestras, including the Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, the Calgary Philharmonic and the Vancouver Symphony.
In Europe, Ms. Fialkowska has appeared as guest artist with such prestigious orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the London Philharmonic, and the Royal Philharmonic, among others. She has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic and the Hong Kong Philharmonic and has worked with such renowned conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kyril Kondrashin, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Klaus Tennstedt.
She has won special recognition for a series of important premieres, most notably the world premiere performance of a newly discovered Piano Concerto by Franz Liszt with the Chicago Symphony in 1990. She has also given the world premiere of a Piano Concerto by Libby Larsen with the Minnesota Orchestra (October 1991) and the North American premiere of the Piano Concerto by Sir Andrzej Panufnik with the Colorado Symphony (February 1992) and the Piano concerto by Marjan Mozetich with the Kingston Orchestra (March 2000).
Janina Fialkowska was the Founding Director of the hugely successful “Piano Six” project and its successor “Piano Plus”. This latest project brings together some of Canada’s greatest Classical pianists, instrumentalists and vocalists with Canadians who, for either geographical or financial reasons, would otherwise be unable to hear this caliber of “live” classical performance. In 2000 "Piano Six" won one of Canada's top Arts’ awards, the Chalmers Award.
In 1992 the CBC produced a sixty-minute television documentary, "the World of Janina Fialkowska” that aired to great acclaim throughout Canada. This program won a Special Jury Prize at the 1992 San Francisco International Film Festival. In October 2002 Ms Fialkowska was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2006, Acadia University, one of Canada’s oldest and finest educational institutions awarded her an honorary doctorate.
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 tumor in her left arm. After successful surgery to remove the cancer, Ms Fialkowska 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.
Ms. Fialkowska's discography includes discs featuring the 24 Chopin Etudes, Op. 10 & Op. 25, the Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3 and the Impromptus, a solo album of Liszt piano works and her astonishing version of the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt. Also a solo Szymanowski album and the highly acclaimed CD, "La jongleuse - Salon pieces and encores." She has also recorded her immensely popular CD of the Paderewski piano concerto with the Polish National Radio Orchestra, the rarely heard piano concerto by Moritz Moszkowski and more recently, to the highest critical acclaim, the three Liszt piano concertos with Hans Graf conducting.
Ms. Fialkowska’s latest recording is a unique performance of the two Chopin concertos in an authentic version consisting of piano solo and string quintet accompaniment (“…. She has produced not just another recording of the two standard concertos but a unique one … Fialkowska could hardly have chosen a more suitable project for her return to recording and has risen to the challenge of the music with real distinction.” The Toronto Star). Soon to be released is her latest recording consisting of piano concertos by Mozart.
After a busy summer festival season across North America, culminating in her highly anticipated and wildly successful return to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra where she performed under the baton of Leonard Slatkin Beethoven‘s 3rd piano concerto. The 2007-2008 season brings exciting new challenges including recitals in Rome, Toronto and on the International Piano series in London as well as orchestral appearances in North America, Europe and Japan.
To learn more about this soloist, visit Janina Fialkowska's web site.
Lucie Robert , violin
Violin professor, Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music; Soloist, performed over thirty different works with orchestras including Montreal, Toronto and Mexico City; Recitalist and chamber musician, appearances throughout U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia; Broadcasts and recordings for NPR, CBC Radio Network, Radio Canada, Radio France and Aureus Records; her violin students have been prizewinners in international competitions such as Indianapolis, Young Concert Artists, Paganini, and Sendai; jury member of several competitions including 2006 Montreal International Violin Competition
Jeffrey Cohen, piano
American pianist Jeffrey Cohen continues to draw international attention for the brilliance and artistry of his interpretations. Mr. Cohen has been praised by the New York Times for the “lucidity and poetry” of his playing.
Both as soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Cohen's performances have taken him to three different continents. Recitals have included appearances for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Bargemusic, the Phillips Collection, Mostly Music Series of Chicago, the St. Lawrence Center, and the National Arts Center of Ottawa. In the summers, Mr. Cohen has been a faculty member or guest artist at major festivals including the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Waterloo Music Festival, Aria International Summer Academy, Orford Festival, and the Seoul Summer Music Camp. He is currently a faculty member at the Texas Music Festival and the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy.
An active recording artist, Mr. Cohen's debut compact disc, a collection of French chamber music, received critical acclaim in Fanfare magazine. A world premiere recording of works by the French organ composer Jean Hure with Le Groupe de Chambre de Montreal was recently released on Fonovox Disques. Mr. Cohen has also performed for broadcasts on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” the CBC Radio Network, Radio Canada, Radio France and WQXR.
In addition to his concert activities, Mr. Cohen's teaching gifts have established him as a leading piano pedagogue of his generation. His students have won prizes in major competitions, perform in prestigious venues worldwide and enjoy successful careers as teacher/performers. Mr. Cohen has given master classes and workshops at Indiana University, the University of Houston Summer Piano Institute, University of San Jose, Wilfrid Laurier University and throughout Korea and Taiwan.
University where he worked with noted pianist Menahem Pressler and received the coveted Battista Memorial Award. He is a past Laureate of the Beethoven Foundation and a prizewinner of the Sherman-Clay Steinway Piano Competition. Mr. Cohen is currently a member of the piano and chamber music faculties at the Manhattan School of Music. He resides in Manhattan with his wife, violinist Lucie Robert, and their son Jeremy.
Manhattan School of Music faculty member since 1990.
Kyung Sun Lee, violin
Violinist Kyung Sun Lee captured sixth prize in the 1994 Tchaikowsky Competition, a bronze medal in the 1993 Queen Elizabeth Competition, first prizes of the Washington and D'Angelo International Competitions, and third prize in the Montreal International Competition, where she also won the Audience Favorite and the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work prizes. Subsequent to winning these awards she has enjoyed ever-increasing popularity as a performer. She has received high critical acclaim: "Exceptional tonal suavity and expressive intensity in equal measure," commented The Strad. "Godard's 'Concerto Romantique' could not have had a more outstanding soloist than Kyung Sun Lee," proclaimed Harris Goldsmith in the New York Concert Review. "Fluidity and grace; pathos and emotion," raved the Palm Beach Post. "Lee is the most musical, the most intelligent soloist to have played with the orchestra in quite a while," maintained the Tuscaloosa News. "Penetrating clarity, a strong sense of style and a technical supremacy that conquered all difficulties with unruffled ease," announced the Miami Herald. "Beyond superb execution, she conveyed [Vieuxtemps's Concerto no. 5]'s particular Romanticism expertly," remarked Dennis Rooney in The Strad.
For years a highly sought after teacher in Seoul, Lee became Assistant Professor of Violin at the Oberlin Conservatory in the fall of 2001, and then Associate Professor of Violin at University of Houston in the fall of 2006. She has taught the last two summers at the Aspen Music Festival, and has also been involved with the Seattle and Green Mountain Chamber Music Festivals, the Euroart Chamber Music Festival in Leipzig, as well as numerous festivals in Korea. Lee is a former member of the acclaimed KumHo/Asiana String Quartet of Korea, with whom she performed worldwide. In addition to her busy international performing career, in recent years she has been in some demand as a judge of violin competitions.
Lee has recorded two CDs with pianist/husband Brian Suits, "Salut d'Amour" with pianist HaeSun Paik on EMI, several recordings with KumHo/Asiana String Quartet, and "Spanish Heart" with German pianist Peter Schindler and guitarist Sung-Ho Chang on Good International. Her latest album, with cellist Tilmann Wick, was released in January of 2004 on Audite Records. Kyung Sun Lee studied at Seoul National University, Peabody Conservatory and The Juilliard School. Her teachers have included Nam Yun Kim, Sylvia Rosenberg, Robert Mann, Dorothy Delay and Hyo Kang.
Edward Arron, cello
Has appeared as a soloist with orchestra, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Artistic Director, Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert; artistic director, Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival (CO); artistic coordinator, Caramoor Virtuosi. Guest appearances with the Tokyo and Shanghai Quartets, Silk Road Ensemble.
To learn more about this soloist, visit Edward Arron's web site.
