Fialkowska, Janina
Fialkowska, Janina
Fialkowska, Janina, Canadian pianist; b. Mont-real, May 7, 1951. She was born of a Polish father and a Canadian mother. At age 5, she commenced piano lessons with her mother. Later she was a pupil of Yvonne Hubert at the Ecole Vincent-d’Indy in Montreal (B.M., 1968; M.Mus., 1968). After studies with Yvonne Lefebure in Paris (1968), she attended Sascha Gorodnitzki’s classes at the Juilliard School in N.Y. (1969). She continued to work with him until 1976, and then served as his assistant (1979–84). After taking one of the 3rd prizes at the 1st Artur Rubinstein competition in Israel in 1974, she appeared as a soloist with leading orchs. and as a recitalist in North and South America and Europe. Her fluent technique and beauty of expression have suited her well in the Romantic repertoire. She has played the complete works of Chopin and on May 3, 1990, she was soloist with the Chicago Sym. Orch. in the first performance of the newly discovered Liszt E-flat major Concerto.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire