Inna Faliks
Inna Faliks | |
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| Birth name | Inna Faliks |
| Born | September 19, 1978 (age 46) Odessa, Ukraine |
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| Years active | 1989–present |
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| Website | www |
Inna Faliks is a Ukrainian-American classical pianist, educator, and author.
A touring concert pianist and a Yamaha artist, she holds the posts of Professor of Piano and Head of Piano[1] at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She has made many concert tours performing both classical and contemporary works around the world, as a soloist and with orchestras.[2] [3]
Composers who have written music specifically for her include Clarice Assad, Lev Zhurbin,[4] Timo Andres, Billy Childs, Richard Danielpour, Paola Prestini, and Peter Golub. In 2019 she performed the world premiere of Danielpour's Eleven Bagatelles for Piano.[5]
Early life
[edit]Faliks was born in 1978 in Odessa, in today's Ukraine[6] but then part of the Soviet Union. She started piano lessons at the age of five with her piano-teacher mother, Irene Faliks.[7] To escape antisemitism,[1] Faliks (age 10) and her family emigrated as refugees[8] from Odessa to Chicago, with a two-month interim stay in Rome.[9]
In 1994 at age 15 she debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing music by Tchaikovsky.[7][10]
Her musical education after emigrating to the United States in the late 1980s included studying with Boris Petrushansky[5] and with Emilio del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago; receiving a Graduate Performance Diploma and master's degree at the Peabody Conservatory studying with Leon Fleisher[11] and Ann Schein;[12] receiving an Artist Diploma from the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale in Imola, Italy; and earning a Doctorate with Gilbert Kalish at Stony Brook University.[10][13]
In 2008 she founded a poetry-music series in New York City for the Manhattan Arts Council called Music/Words, which she also curated.[14] It featured classical music performances and live poetry readings.[12]
In the late 2000s and early 2010s she commuted between New York and Chicago as a member of the Northeastern Illinois University piano faculty in Chicago.[12][15]
In 2013 she joined the UCLA faculty,[14] where she is Professor of Piano and Head of Piano.[1] That year she co-starred with Lesley Nicol in two performances of "Admission – One Shilling," a play for pianist and actor based on the life of British pianist Dame Myra Hess.[16]
Faliks has toured with an autobiographical monologue-recital, "Polonaise-Fantasie: The Story of a Pianist."[7][17] Delos Records issued a recording of the show in 2017.
In 2018 she formed the Hollywood Piano Trio with violinist Roberto Cani and cellist Robert deMaine.[5]
Backbeat Books published her memoir Weight in the Fingertips in October 2023.[18]
Personal life
[edit]Faliks lives in California with her husband and two children.
In 2021 she wrote of her mother's decision to choose legal suicide in Switzerland after a struggle with cancer.[8]
Discography
[edit]- Manuscripts Don't Burn (Sono Luminis, 2024)[13]
- Reimagine: Beethoven & Ravel (Navona Records, 2021)
- The Schumann Project, Volume 1 (MSR Classics, 2021)
- Polonaise-fantasie: The Story of a Pianist (Delos Records, 2017)
- Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in c minor Op. 111 (MSR Classics, 2013)
- Sound of Verse (MSR Classics, 2009)
Awards
[edit]- Pro Musicis International Award (2005)[10]
- Grand Prize winner, St. Charles International Piano Competition (2005)[10]
- 40 Under Forty (Stony Brook University, 2016)[19]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Nikolas Lanum (22 November 2023), UCLA professor rips school's 'gutless' response to antisemitism on campus: 'Complicit with Hamas', Fox News, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ Inna Faliks (22 March 2019), The future of classical music is Chinese, The Washington Post, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ Red Rocks Music Festival Presents World-Acclaimed Pianist Inna Faliks In ‘Dialogues’, The Verde Independent, 10 November 2020, retrieved 6 April 2024
- ^ Cheryl Kempler (26 March 2024), Inna Faliks and Bar Avni: Top Jewish Musicians in the Spotlight, B'nai Brith International, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ a b c A. A. Cristi (2 April 2019), Inna Faliks Performs World Premiere By Richard Danielpour At The Wallis, Broadway World, retrieved 7 April 2024
- ^ Herb Randall (18 March 2024), The Journey of a Musical Émigré: On Inna Faliks’s "Weight in the Fingertips", Los Angeles Review of Books, retrieved 6 April 2024
- ^ a b c Hedy Weiss (29 January 2019), Arts & Minds: A piano prodigy, 'North by Northwest' and the American slave trade, Jewish Chicago, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ a b Inna Faliks (12 November 2021), My mother came to America for freedom. She left for the freedom to die with dignity., The Washington Post, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ Inna Faliks. Weight in the Fingertips. Backbeat Books. pp. 42–51. ISBN 1493071742. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ a b c d Inna Faliks, Piano, Classical Connect, retrieved 6 April 2024
- ^ Inna Faliks (10 August 2020), Op-Ed: How isolation is a golden opportunity for musicians, Los Angeles Times, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ a b c Award-winning Pianist Inna Faliks to Perform Piano Camp Fundraiser June 16, University of Mississippi News, 10 June 2009, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ a b John Banther (6 March 2024), A Conversation with Pianist Inna Faliks, WETA, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ a b Garrett Anglin (10 March 2013), Concert pianist joins faculty, Daily Bruin, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ Inna Faliks. Weight in the Fingertips. Backbeat Books. p. 207. ISBN 1493071742. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
- ^ Marc Vitali (8 March 2022), ‘Downton Abbey’ Actor Hits the Chicago Stage With New Show, WTTW, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ Jarrett Hoffman (23 March 2022), "The Story of a Pianist" — Ukrainian-born Inna Faliks on her monologue-recital & her home country, Cleveland Classical, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ Keith Bramich (23 February 2024), Weight in the Fingertips, Classical Music Daily, retrieved 5 April 2024
- ^ The 2016 Honorees, Stony Brook University, retrieved 5 April 2024
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