On Thursday, August 15, Inna Faliks will make her Peninsula Music Festival debut. Fresh from her debut at the Newport Music Festival, Faliks looks forward to the all-Prokofiev program, which includes two “athletic and exhilarating” concerti by the Russian composer.

The concert will take place at 8:00 pm at the Door Community Auditorium, 3926 Wisonsin 42, Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Tickets are $10-60. A pre-concert talk will take place at 6:30 pm, available with the purchase of an additional $5 ticket.

COMPLETE PROGRAM

Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 10, D-flat Major
Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 26, C Major
Prokofiev, Symphony No. 6, Op. 11, e-flat minor

Called “adventurous” and “passionate” by The New Yorker, Ukrainian-born, New York City based pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After acclaimed her teenage debuts at the Gilmore Festival and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart. Critics praise her “courage to take risks, expressive intensity and technical perfection” (General Anzeiger, Bonn), “Infusing every note with brilliance and personality,” (Hilton Head Competition Review), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post), “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun) and her “virtuosity, humor, lyricism and a way to make every note an important part of the texture of the music.” (Free Times, South Carolina). Her critically acclaimed CD on MSR Classics, Sound of Verse, was released in 2009, featuring music of Boris Pasternak, Rachmaninoff and Ravel. Her discography also includes a recital recording for the Yamaha Disklavier library. Her new Beethoven disc will be out this year. Future recording projects also include a Chopin solo and cello sonatas recording with cellist Wendy Warner, and a disc of commissioned piano works for her poetry-music series, Music/Words.

Ms. Faliks’s distinguished career has taken her to thousands of recitals and concerti in prestigious venues in the US as well as in France, Italy, Switzerland, Ukraine, Estonia, Japan, as well as Russia. She has been featured on WQXR, WNYC, WFMT and many international television broadcasts, and has performed in major venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Concert Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris’ Salle Cortot, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall and in many important festivals such as Verbier, Brevard, Taos, IKIF at Mannes, Bargemusic, and Chautauqua. She recently co-starred with Downton Abbey star Lesley Nicol in “Admission – One Shilling” , a play for pianist and actor about the life of Dame Myra Hess, the great British pianist. Her performance was described by Chicago Classical Music as “subtle and powerful, poised, beautiful, graceful and effortless.” She has played concerti under the batons of many conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Keith Lockhart, Edward Polochick, Daniel Meyer, Victor Yampolsky, and many others. Her chamber music partnerships include work with Fred Sherry, Ilya Kaler, Colin Carr, Wendy Warner, Nathaniel Rosen, Nina Beilina and others. Ms. Faliks is a Yamaha Artist. Her 2012-13 season engagements include Newport Festival, Le Poisson Rouge, a tour of Canada, return engagements in Salle Cortot in Paris, with Minnesota Sinfonia, at the Peninsula Festival in Door County and at Baruch College in NYC. Next season, her performances include debuts in Israel and China.

Committed to innovative programming, rarely heard and new music, as well as audience communication and education, Faliks has premiered 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg, variations by acclaimed contemporary composers, on Bach’s Aria, at LACMA, Los Angeles; she gave the New York premiere of the work at Bargemusic and the Chicago premiere on WFMT radio. Ms. Faliks performed and recorded the unknown piano works of Russian poet Boris Pasternak, presenting his music at lecture recitals in conjunction with the University of Chicago. At the Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies, she presented “Three Jewish Composers – Three Centuries”, giving the North American premiere of Ilya Levinson’s Shtetle Suite and the world premiere of Lev Ljova Zhurbin’s Sirota for piano and historical recording, written for her. She went on to create a one-woman show, including Jewish composers and her own essays, performing at Baruch Performance Center’s “Solo in the City – Jewish Women, Jewish Stars” Festival in NYC.

She was the winner of many prestigious competitions, including the Hilton Head International Competition and the coveted International Pro Musicis Award 2005. Ms. Faliks is the founder and curator of the LMCC award winning interdisciplinary series Music/Words – www.musicwordsnyc.com . This poetry-music series goes into its 5th NYC season, and has been described as “surreal, impactful, and relevant…she played with her signature blend of lithe grace and raw power” (Lucid Culture) Her long standing relationship with WFMT radio has led to yearly broadcasts of Music/Words, which she produces.

Faliks’s teachers included Ann Schein, Leon Fleisher, Gilbert Kalish and Boris Petrushansky. This year, Faliks joins the illustrious faculty of UCLA, Herb Albert School of Music, as tenured Associate Professor of Piano, and next year she will tour China.