For almost 50 years, concert pianist Janina Fialkowska has enchanted audiences and critics around the world. She has been praised for her musical integrity, her refreshing natural approach and her unique piano sound thus becoming “one of the Grandes Dames of piano playing” (Frankfurter Allgemeine).

Born in Canada, she began her piano studies with her mother at age 4 continuing on in her native Montréal with Yvonne Hubert. In Paris she studied with Yvonne Lefébure and in New York at the Juilliard School with Sascha Gorodnitzki, experiencing the best of both French and Russian piano traditions. Her career was 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” laying the foundation for her lifelong identification with this composer.

Since then she has performed with the foremost orchestras worldwide under the baton of such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Sir Georg Solti, Sir Roger Norrington, Klaus Mäkelä and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She has won special recognition for a series of important premieres, notably Liszt’s newly discovered Third Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony and several contemporary piano concertos. Ms Fialkowska’s discography includes many award-winning discs, e.g. the BBC Music Magazine’s 2013 “Instrumental CD of the Year” award as well as the Canadian “Juno Award” in 2018.

Her native Canada has bestowed upon her their highest honors: “Officer of the Order of Canada”, the “Governor General’s 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award in Classical Music”, as well as three honorary doctorates. She passes on her wide musical experience in master classes and at her annual “International Piano Academy” in Bavaria, where she now resides. She makes frequent appearances as a juror of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions such as this year in Munich at the ARD Competition, the Liszt Utrecht Competition and she was President of the venerable Geneva Competition.

Recent highlights included her return to the Berlin Piano Festival, three tours of North America and numerous concerts in Germany, Austria and Croatia. She also gave several sought-after master classes around the world.

Her autobiography “A Note in Time” (Novum Publishing, London) – released in November 2021 – has received rave reviews globally. “Subtlety, which is a hallmark of her playing on the piano keys, distinguishes also her writing … an original writer couldn’t have done a better job.” (Augsburger Allgemeine). A “mesmerizing memoir” (Classical Voice North America). “A totally absorbing read” (La scena musicale). The book is currently being translated into German.

Ms Fialkowska’s long awaited fourth and final recording of her immensely successful “Chopin Recital” has been released on the ATMA Classique label in February 2023. In Spring 2023, she will return to the world’s most important piano festival, the Klavierfestival Ruhr in Germany. Once again she will be a member of the Rubinstein International Piano Competition jury in Tel Aviv and she will be the chairwoman of the Van Cliburn Junior Competition in Dallas, Texas and she looking forward to continue her own International Piano Academy in Bavaria.

Back on tour in Quebec in summer 2023 and winter 2024.