She is a virtuoso pianist born in Montreal, Canada who studied the piano with her mother from the time she was five years old and later attended the Ecole de Musique de Vincent d’Indy and Montreal University, where she achieved advanced degrees by the age of 17. In 1969 she won the Radio Canada National talent contest and after having attended studies in Paris she took further musical education at the Juilliard School.
After being a prizewinner at the first Master Piano Competition established by Arthur Rubinstein, he was instrumental in launching her professional career where she has gone on to achieve much acclaim. She is recognized as being a distinguished interpreter of classical and romantic works, and in particular of Chopin and Liszt, as well as a champion of twentieth century Polish composers.
Her concert appearances and performances are many and include working with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony , the Cleveland Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebuow Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and all of the major Canadian orchestras.
She is the Founding Director of the Piano Six, which was a project that won the Chalmers Award in Canada for bringing music to those who may not ordinarily have the chance to head live classical music.
Her musical career slowed dramatically for the period between 2002 and 2003 when cancer was detected in her arm, but after successful surgery and playing left-hand concertos that she had transcribed for the right hand, she resumed her career in a successful concert in Germany in 2004 using both hands.
Her honours have included an honorary doctorate from Canada’ s Acadia University and she was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in October 2001.
She has been married to the German music manager Harry Oesterle since 2001.
In 2010 she hosted the celebration of works by Chopin at the Festival of Sound.
Janina Fialkowska recordings
CBC 1114 (CD: La Jongleuse)
Piano – Janina Fialkowska
Here she performs the first movement of Moskowski’s “Piano Concerto in E major”, Op. 59…
Sources:
- http://www.janinafialkowska.com/biography/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janina_Fialkowska
- http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001204
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/3439888-Janina-Fialkowska
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/janina-fialkowska-mn0001642231/biography