This Sunday, June 9, in Los Angeles, pianist Inna Faliks will perform Schumann’s romantic masterpiece The Davidsbündler. These eighteen short pieces offer a valuable insight into Schumann’s aesthetic vision, as well as an interesting analog to the persisting debate about contemporary music. In brief, the composer places the two sides of his personality in a musical conversation about his personal vision versus his public persona. 

The concert will also include the Shchedrin’s Basso Ostinato and Beethoven’s Polonaise in C. It will take place at 6:00 pm at Bing Hall, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd  Los Angeles, CA. Admission is free.

(You can also stream the concert from the link on this page: www.lacma.org/event/inna-faliks-0)

COMPLETE PROGRAM: 

Robert Schumann, Davidsbündler, op. 6

Rodion Shchedrin, Basso Ostinato

Beethoven, Polonaise in C, op. 89

Inna appears on April 8th and 15th as part of National Poetry Month on 98.7 WFMT-FM Chicago. Inna Faliks’ Music/Words series is an interdisciplinary live performance series founded by NYC-based pianist Inna Faliks, exploring connections between poetry and music by presenting collaborations between exciting solo musicians and acclaimed contemporary poets in the form of a live recital/reading.

Inna Faliks created the series in order to foster a chance for poets and musicians to work together and inspire each other, as well as to allow different audiences to come together for these musical-literary events. New published and unpublished works are read alongside performances of music old and new and connected by content, intuition, and inspiration.

April 8 will feature a broadcast of October 2012’s concert with Chicago’s Poetry Foundation. Faliks was joined by Valzhyna Mort, winner of Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize and the author of Factory of Tears and Collected Body, as well as Vera Pavlova, whose first poetry collection in English, If There Is Something to Desire, was a bestselling title in 2010. Works by Gubaidulina, Tchaikovsky, Lera Auerbach, Shchedrin, and Schumann were performed by Faliks.

April 15 will feature Faliks with a poet to be announced.

On March 30, Inna will present “Three Jewish Composers Three Centuries” at Baruch Performing Arts Center, Baruch College, 25th Street, New York City. This lecture is combined with performances of the work with Schoenberg, Gershwin, and Zhurbin. This concert is part of Baruch College’s SOLO IN THE CITY SERIES:  JEWISH WOMEN JEWISH STARS. Click here for more information.

Called “adventurous” and “passionate” by The New Yorker and “poetic” by Time Out New York, Ukrainian-born, New York City-based pianist Inna Faliks (www.innafaliks.com) has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After her debut 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), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post), and “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun). Her acclaimed CD on MSR Classics, “Sound of Verse”, was released in 2009.

The Los Angeles Times, calling Inna a “rising star” recommends her upcoming concert this Friday, March 15 at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall.

Of Schoenberg’s Drei Klavierstücke, Opus 11, Inna says:

I think one can hear to opus 11 as as a journey of spontaneity, of immediate expression – which is what the composer wanted. It speaks lyrically, wails painfully, roars and even giggles. There are little fragments of waltzes, memories of melodies, nightmarish undertones. It all ends with “Emancipation of Dissonance” in the third piece – and this can be listened to in the same way as one would watch a French New Wave film. Thoughts, feelings, actions happen in real time, without premeditation.

Inna will perform with the Minnesota Sinfonia as part of their Winter Concert Series. “An Old Fashioned Fantasia” will feature a world premiere by Theodore Unseth, as well as works by Ralph Vaughn Williams and Felix Mendelssohn. Please note that there will be two performances at two different venues and times: on Friday, April 26, at 7:00 pm at Founders Hall, and on Saturday, April 27, at 2:00 pm at Basillica of St. Mary. Arrive early to Founders Hall at Metro State University. The performance space seats only 317 and often fills to capacity. Overflow audiences will be seated in the lobby. This venue is handicap-accessible with limited handicap parking. Parking across the street is $2.50. The Basilica of St. Mary has handicap-accessible parking and entrances. Some free parking is available in lots. For more information, please visit www.mnsinfonia.org/winter-concert-series-v-2.

COMPLETE PROGRAM:

Theodore Unseth Concertino (Sinfonia Commission and World Premiere, Funded by the McKnight Foundation)

Vaughn Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

F. Mendelssohn Concerto No. 1 in g minor, opus 25

Inna will perform a solo recital in Los Angeles at Schoenberg Hall, Schoenberg Music Building, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music on Friday, March 15, 7:30pm. In her debut recital as a Professor of Piano on the UCLA faculty, Faliks performs works by Schumann, Beethoven, Shchedrin, and Schoenberg. Tickets are $12; $5 UCLA faculty, staff and students (with ID). Schoenberg Hall is at 445 Charles E. Young Drive East in Los Angeles and parking can be found in Lot 2.  The kiosk at Hilgard and Westholme is directly across the street from Lot 2 and will sell parking passes to visitors. For more information, visit http://www.music.ucla.edu.

COMPLETE PROGRAM:

Beethoven Sonata No. 32, op 111 in c minor

Schumann Davidsbundlertanze op. 6

Shchedrin Basso Ostinato

Schoenberg Drei Klavierstucke op 11