world-renowned Canadian pianist is coming back to Squamish, a place that she says has a special place in her heart.
“I love Squamish,” Janina Fialkowska said in an interview from her home in Germany last week. “It’s a big part of my life. I would not dream of playing a West Coast tour without going to Squamish.”
Fialkowska’s career spans more than 40 years. Germany’s distinguished daily newspaper, the Allgemeine Zeitung, recently hailed her as “one of the grande dames of piano playing.”
She has performed three times previously in Squamish. As part of her year-long 65th birthday celebration tour in Canada and around the world, she will give a concert at the Eagle Eye Community Theatre on March 11.
Fialkowska’s association with the community and Howe Sound Performing Arts Association (HSPAA) goes back 18 years. As part of Piano Six – the program that Ms. Fialkowska founded to bring internationally renowned Canadian pianists to more remote communities across the country – the local association was invited to host artists such as Jon Kimura Parker, Angela Cheng, Andre Laplante, Fialkowska and many others.
One problem stood in the way, however. Ƶapplacked a quality instrument. In 1997, the association and the Rotary Club of Ƶapphosted a fundraising gala with Fialkowska performing on a loaned grand piano. With funds raised by HSPAA over four years and matched by the Vancouver Foundation, plus monies raised from the gala and a final donation from the Tiampo family, the association was able to purchase a Yamaha C7 grand piano. Fialkowska at a subsequent concert jokingly called it “her” piano.
The pianist maintains a rigorous schedule of solo recitals and orchestral engagements, performing regularly throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Why, when she can fill concert halls around the world, would she choose a venue as intimate as the Eagle Eye Community Theatre, which has room for only 200 people? “I actually prefer playing in more intimate surroundings,” she says. “Most of the pieces I play were written for intimate surroundings. Chopin hated playing concerts. Even in his time, there were no 3,000-seat halls. What he liked was playing in peoples’ salons or living rooms.”
Fialkowska’s professional career was launched in 1974 by the legendary Arthur Rubinstein, who declared that in Fialkowska, he had found “a born Chopin interpreter.”
She explains her affinity for Chopin. “The first thing is, I have a last name that is so Polish it’s ridiculous, and if you happen to be Polish, it’s like a sin not to love Chopin. My parents also loved Chopin very much – and my mother was not Polish, she was a Canadian pianist.
“Anyone who is a pianist loves Chopin because he wrote so exquisitely for the instrument. For me… from the very beginning, the rhythms, the melodies, just the whole feel of his music I adored. And every day – if possible – I love him more. I’m so happy I’m going to be playing all Chopin recitals next year.”
Beyond the demands of the concert stage, Fialkowska is committed to inspiring the next generation of pianists. Her international piano academy, founded in 2010, is run annually in Bavaria, where she resides with husband, cultural manager Harry Oesterle.
Is there a way to inspire young people to appreciate classical music? “It’s not for everybody,” Fialkowska admits. “That’s just a fact because you have to have the capacity to sit and listen and concentrate and want to do that. But, what I’ve noticed over and over again… let’s talk about a school concert in Canada… is that there will always be about 10 per cent of the kids who are riveted. To really appreciate [classical music] is to let it really open up all your senses, your heart, your mind and let it just flow into you. And some kids can do that and some kids are just hooked right away.
“Nothing replaces the live classical music performance… It’s unique and that’s where you catch the kids. If you get a very good performer, you show them that there is a whole world there they can discover and appreciate if they just listen.”
Tickets for the March 11 concert are available at Billie’s Flower House. A reception prior to the event will begin at 6:45 p.m. at the Eagle Eye Community Theatre, and the concert will start at 8 p.m.