‘Martina Filjak revealed herself to be a premium class pianist.’
Süddeutsche Zeitung

‘Lively and attractive stage presence… resourcefulness of technique and naturalness of musicality… A pianist to watch.’

The New York Times

Pianist Martina Filjak is praised by the international public and critics for her passionate and yet lyrical performances and technical mastery, as well as for her ‘galvanizing strength’ and ‘magnetic stage presence’.

She came to international attention in 2009, when she won first prize and a number of special awards in the renowned Cleveland International Piano Competition, which was soon followed by her debut performances at the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Musikverein Vienna and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall (‘Lively and attractive stage presence… resourcefulness of technique and naturalness of musicality… A pianist to watch’, The New York Times). Before Cleveland, she had won first prizes in the Viotti Competition (2007) and the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona (2008) and was a laureate of the Busoni Competition in Bolzano.

In Croatia, she has won the Croatian Musicians’ Association Milka Trnina Award, the national Vladimir Nazor Award for her performances of Brahms’s Piano concerto No. 1 and Kelemen’s Concerto, the Orlando Award for performance at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Judita Award for performance of Dora Pejačević’s Concerto at the Split Summer Festival, and in 2009 she was awarded the Order of Merit for her accomplishments in music.

In the last few seasons, Martina has performed with orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra, the Robert-Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica La Verdi Milan. She has also performed at major halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus Berlin, L’Auditori and Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Teatro San Carlo, the Sala Verdi, the Salle Gaveau, the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the NDR Hall in Hannover, the Residenz in Munich, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.

In recent seasons, Martina has performed with renowned conductors such as JoAnn Falletta, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Alexander Shelley, Hans Graf, Ivan Repušić, Julian Kovatchev, Markus Poschner, Marcus Bosch, Josep Caballé Domenech, Paul Goodwin, Carlos Miguel Prieto and Stefan Sanderling. She is a passionate chamber musician and regularly performs and collaborates with ensembles and soloists such as the Szymanowski Quartet, the Ensemble Berlin, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Radovan Vlatković, Felix Klieser, Andrej Bielow, Julian Steckel, Monika Leskovar and Eckart Runge.

Born into a family of musicians, she started learning piano at the age of five, and had her first public performance when she was six. She was educated at the Zagreb Academy of Music, the Vienna Conservatory and in the renowned soloist programme in Hanover. She also participated in masterclasses at the prestigious International Piano Academy Lake Como in Italy.

Martina’s large repertoire includes music from Bach to Berio and over thirty piano concertos. As a person who loves nature, where she feels truly happy, she is thrilled by music that evokes the sounds of nature and folk melodies – Bartók’s suite Out of Doors, Berio’s Six Encores (Wasserklavier, Erdenklavier, Feuerklavier and Luftklavier) and Ravel’s Une barque sur l’océan are some of her favourite pieces. She also enjoys chamber performances, as well as technically and intellectually demanding and complex works such as Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

In the season 2021/22 she performed with the Kansas City Symphony conducted by Michael Francis, the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock under the baton of Marcus Bosch, the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pascal Rophe, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra led by Guenther Neuhold, the Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sebastian Lang-Lessing and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra led by David Danzmayr; she was resident artist at the Croatian Hall Split and gave a series of solo and chamber recitals.

The season 2022/23 includes invitations to the MITO Festival in Milan, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, collaborations with the Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra Ljubljana, the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz and her debut at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg Grand Hall, performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg.

Her latest album with works of Franz Liszt was released by Hänssler Classic in January 2020.

Martina is fluent in seven languages. Fortunately, as an active performer, she loves to travel.

For additional information visit www.martinafiljak.com.