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Martina Filjak bio

“It couldn’t be better – her musicianship was enchanting. Everything is just right, from the tone, to the choice of tempos, the dynamics, her very fine pianistic technique and a great emotional musicality.” – Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Brilliant, sensitive and imaginative game with technical ingenuity and natural musicality …remarkable individuality … a pianist to keep an eye on.” – The New York Times

Croatian pianist Martina Filjak has established herself 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 2021/2022 season. Martina returns to the US performing with the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Francis, the Arkansas Symphony and Akiko Fujimoto, the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and David Danzmayr. She looks forward to further collaborations with the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and Marcus Bosch, the Bilbao Symphony and Gutnehr Neuhold, the Liechtenstein Symphony and Sebastian Lang Lessing as well as the Symphony Orchestra of the Croatian Radio and Pascal Rophe. She tours Germany in a chamber music formation with horn player Felix Klieser and violinist Andrey Bielow. Future performances include venues such as the Schleßwig Holstein Music Festival, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Throughout her extensive career Martina Filjak has performed with numerous orchestras that include the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Bremer Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Staatskapelle Halle, he Symphony Orchestra of Aachen, 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 Dortmund Philharmonic 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 Philharmonic.

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 Prieto, Paul Goodwin and Stefan Sanderling.

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.

www.martinafiljak.com