Croatian pianist Martina Filjak has established herself internationally made a name for herself ( has established herself?) in the international concert world (internationally?) with her passionate, poetic playing and the brilliant technical mastery of her instrument. She captivates audiences and the press with her charismatic personality and magnetic stage presence.
After graduating at the Music Academy in Zagreb, Martina Filjak completed her studies at the Vienna Conservatory and at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.She also attended master classes at the piano academy in Como.
She garnered international attention in 2009 by winning first prize and the Beethoven Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. Before that she won first prizes at the Viotti International Piano Competition in Italy (2007) and the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona and was a prizewinner at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano.Since then, the artist has worked with renowned orchestras, particularly in the USA, Germany, Italy and Europe, and has played piano evenings in important concert halls.She has already been a guest at Zankel Hall of Carnegie Hall New York, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Sala Verdi and Auditorio in Milan, the Teatro San Carlo Naples, the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Ravinia Festival of Chicago and the Salle Gaveau Paris.
After her debut CD with sonatas by Antonio Soler and a chamber music recording with the cellists Jan Vogler and Christian Poltéra, which was released by Sony Classical in 2013, her second solo CD with works by Schumann, Bach / Liszt and Skrijabin was released in autumn 2016 at the label Solo Musica. On January 10, 2020 the new album “Light & Darkness” was released by the label Profil Edition Günter Hänssler.
In the 2019/2020 season, Martina Filjak as a soloist focuses on projects like her recitals at Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Tbilisi Piano Festival, the Piano Festival Cristofori in Padova and her return to the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.She cooperates with orchestras like the Royal Camerata at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Münchner Rundfunkorchester at the Vatoslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb or the orchestra of the Theater für Niedersachsen in Hildesheim and Goslar.She performs with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra as well as the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra and plays solo within the “Cycle of Great Pianists” in the Teatro Municipal Santiago de Chile. Additionally, Martina Filjak tours through several German cities performing chamber music with renowned horn player Felix Klieser.
As a soloist Martina Filjak performed with the Symphony Orchestra of Aachen, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Bremer Philharmonics, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Staatskapelle Halle and the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock.
Other orchestra engagements brought her to the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogota, the The Florida Orchestra, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, the Orchestra La Verdi Milano, the San Diego Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon, the Robert Schumann, Philharmonie Chemnitz, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Japan Century Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Orchester Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Torino Philharmonic Orchestra and the Zagreb Philharmonics.
Martina Filjak has worked with conductors such as Michael Schønwandt, Heinrich Schiff, Theodor Guschlbauer, JoAnn Falletta, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Alexander Shelley, Hans Graf, Markus Poschner, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Josep Caballé-Domenech, Carlos Miguel Preto Paul Goodwin and Stefan Sanderling.
Future projects include appearances at the Stift music festival in the Netherlands and concertos along the Bremen Philharmonic and Michael Schonwandt as well as the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern.
As a recepient of various awards in her native Croatia, Martina takes pride of being awarded the ‘Vladimir Nazor’ prize, the ‘Milka Trnina prize’ of the Croatian association of musical artists, ‘Orlando’ prize for her performance at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the ‘Judita’ prize for her performance of Dora Pejacevic’s Piano concerto at the Split Festival. In 2009 she was honored by the President with the ‘Red hrvatskog pletera’ for the international achievements.
Her special passion for chamber music shows in the collaboration with top-class partners such as the Szymanowski Quartet, the Amaryllis Quartet, the Ensemble Berlin, as well as Dmitry Sinkovsky, Radovan Vlatkovic, Felix Klieser, Monika Leskovar and Tatjana Vassiljeva.
Martina Filjak’s large repertoire ranges from Bach to Berio and includes more than 30 piano concertos. In addition, she is committed to researching less well-known piano literature and various concert formats.
The artist lives in her adopted home of Berlin, loves to travel and speaks seven languages.
“Performing music for me is about reaching and maintaining this very precious yet sensitive precious balance, the balance between the heart, the mind and the body. Just like in life, our work and our communication in music requires constant attention. Uniting the knowledge of performing at soloist recitals, as a soloist with orchestras and as chamber musician into teaching is another privileged task that allows for a deeper musical communication and better understanding of music.”
