BY KIRSTEN BOLTON
FOR ARTSPRING
When an artist is described as “one of Canada’s finest gifts to the international piano world,” (Ottawa Citizen) and in terms of mastering Chopin, a reviewer exclaims “none has taken my breath away quite like Fialkowska . . . if you have the chance to hear her, cancel all other appointments,” (The Evening Standard, London) — you know you are in for something special.
Appearing at ArtSpring on March 30 at 2:30 p.m., Canadian concert pianist Janina Fialkowska brings a 50-year reputation of enchanting audiences and critics around the world to Salt Spring Island.
ArtSpring audiences were thrilled by Fialkowska’s previous concerts on the local stage taking place between 2006 and 2020.
She has been praised for her musical integrity, her refreshing, natural approach and her unique piano sound as “one of the Grand Dames of Piano” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.) She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and won the Governor General’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award in Classical Music, as well as three honorary doctorates.
Her piano studies started at the age of four with her mother in Montréal. She would go on to Paris, Juilliard in New York, and then her career truly launched in 1974 when the legendary Arthur Rubinstein became her mentor after her prize-winning performance at his inaugural Master Piano Competition, calling her a “born Chopin interpreter” and laying the foundation for her lifelong identification with the composer.
Fialkowska now shares her musical experience at her international piano academy in Bavaria, where she resides, and frequently appears as a juror in the world’s most prestigious piano competitions.
Her recently published autobiography A Note in Time has received rave reviews, being called “a mesmerizing memoir.”
Thank you to Mouat’s Clothing for sponsoring this performance.
Tickets are available online at artspring.ca and through the box office: $35 adult, $5 youth, and $15 Theatre Angel Program tickets on request at the box office.