I am very proud of my student, Richard Jiang, who recently won Gold at the 2016 Calgary Performing Arts Festival in the PIANO SOLO - CHOPIN Category (15 years old and under). Congratulations Richard! It's been a long journey, and the results are exceeding my expectations recently.
I am thrilled to join the John Perry Academy Summer Piano Festival 2016 in June, and am looking forward to be a part of this special event!
For those of you who are interested, I am including the link to the webpage of the Festival, where you will find everything you need to know about this upcoming event including links to online application form.
See you there!
Entering Soloist's room 309 at the Warsaw Philharmonic I saw this poster, from 1965, announcing Finals of the VII International F. Chopin Competition. It made me feeling nostalgia. It was not that far ago. Yet, 50+ years have passed, and I did not forget any of these Artists, especially Martha Argerich who, despite of me being a kid and later on a teenager, quickly became my Idol, whom I loved with my platonic love, whom I adored as a pianist and as a woman. Being here tonight I feel the energy, the good energy of all the Artists who performed here over so many years. I can sense their presence everywhere...
I feel privileged to have a chance to return to perform Saint-Saëns Second Piano Concerto in G minor on February 26th and 27th of 2016 with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Patrick Fourniller. These are the last two concerts of the series of performances I gave to celebrate 30 years of my career.
Two weeks from now I will be performing with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Patrick Fournillier. Returning to Warsaw after just half a year is especially pleasant as I still have every note we played together in August of 2015 in my memory (Chopin's E minor Concerto with Maestro Jacek Kaspszyk during "Chopin and His Europe" Festival). This time, Piano Concerto by Saint-Saëns in G minor No. 3 is on the program. One of my favorite Piano Concertos I was fascinated with since I was little. Pleasant to perform, pleasant to listen to, one of those virtuoso - non tragic - music compositions. There are less optimistic moments in first movement, but there is amazing drive and enlightening character in both 2nd and 3rd movements. Amazing finale, with breath taking passages... Looking forward to it!
On December 13, 2015, I will have tremendous pleasure of performing at the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Poland with my dear Friends - Tamara Granat, Agnieszka Rehlis, Kornel Wolak, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka and Tomasz Strahl. They are not only wonderful musicians. They are exceptional human beings. Beside their wonderful music, they have something more - that "something" which makes me feeling like being at right place, in right time, whenever they are next to me. And I have never enough of their presence...
On October 17th, 2015, I was celebrating 30 years of my performing career. On this day, exactly 30 years ago I became a Finalist of the F. Chopin International Competition in Warsaw, Poland. My life changed. Endless concert trips and performances followed. The repertoire I selected for the evening included complete Opus of Mazurkas and Sonata No. 3 - compositions I had in my competition 3rd round program back in 1985.
I am deeply touched after performing together with magnificent Johanne Perron, who kindly agreed to join me during the evening at the Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall - Rozsa Centre of the University of Calgary, performing Chopin's Cello Sonata Op. 65 and Introduction & Grand Polonaise Op. 3.
Thank you to all of you who did find time to come to share the evening with us!