Pianists
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Pianist Eva Virsik has received accolades from distinguished colleagues and audiences alike. In Europe, she was praised by critics for “brilliance and poetry and captivating individual approach.” After her performances in the United States, musicians and audiences quickly recognized her qualities as a brilliant pianist with a beautiful sound and praised her for her “extraordinary degree of control, imagination and immense manual power” (Maine Times). Her US orchestra debut performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the Portland Symphony Orchestra was received with long standing ovations and was broadcast on public radio. Shortly after, Virsik was invited to perform a one hour live recital and interview on the Boston’s WGBH Radio for the famous “Morning pro Musica,” produced by the media icon Robert J. Lurtsema.
Eva Virsik received a silver medal in the Maria Callas International Piano Competition in Athens, Greece, where her performances of works by Schumann, Prokofiev, and Greek composer Manos Hatzidakis lead her to fulfill invitations at prestigious venues in Europe highlighted by a performance with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra at Berolina Concert, and a performance of Schumann works in the Robert Schumann House. She also pioneered performances of the rarely heard Sonata No. 3 by Paul Hindemith, and her recording was included in the archives of German Radio. Exploring this composer’s footsteps, Virsik will present his work in performances during her 2007/2008 season in Connecticut where Hindemith lived for many years. Also this season, she will appear in New York, with a solo performance at Carnegie Hall in Weill Recital Hall before returning to Europe for orchestra and solo engagements in 2008/09. Recently, Eva Virsik had a return engagement with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, where her rendition of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 was received with standing ovations and again was broadcast on the Public Radio Network.
Eva Virsik performed numerous recitals and concerts throughout Europe at various venues in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Athens, Lille, Prague, Stuttgart, Karlsbad, Bratislava and Leipzig. She has toured France and Russia with concerti and recitals As orchestral soloist she appeared with the Orchestra National de Lille, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Karlsbad Symphony in the Czech Republic, Slovak Philharmonic and Slovak Radio Orchestra, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Maine Chamber Ensemble and the Cape Ann Symphony, among others.
Her performances have been aired on radio networks in Germany, Slovakia and the United States. Her concerto performance in Dijon was broadcast on French TV, as well as with the Portland Symphony Orchestra on the Maine PBS television network. She also made numerous studio recordings for radio networks in Europe. She has also been a guest at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Berlin, at the International Music Festival BHS in Bratislava, and contributed with her own series during the Schubert Festival in Maine. She collaborated with groups such as Portland String Quartet and DaPonte String Quartet. Recently she also appeared with Chinese violinist Sha in a series of concerts during the Arcady Music Festival.
Praised by the press as a child prodigy, Eva Virsik, a native of Bratislava, began taking piano lessons at age four with Slovak composer Dušan Martincek, subsequently making her first TV appearance. She gave her first public recital at age eight and began to study piano at the Bratislava Conservatory at age eleven. She has won many competitions, including first prize in the Czechoslovak Youth Competition, first prize in the “Virtuosi per Musica di Pianoforte” competition and first prize at the Smetana competition, including an award of Czech music critics.
Eva Virsik completed her study at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia, where she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree. She studied with Vladimir Natanson, Yakov Zak, and Stanislav Neuhaus, the son of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus. Rising to prominence as one of Slovakia’s finest young pianists, at a young age she performed with her country’s best orchestras under the batons of their prominent conductors that are today well known in the music halls of the world: Libor Pesek, Ondrej Lenard, and Vladimir Valek, among others.
Eva Virsik is also a dedicated pedagogue. She served on faculties of distinguished European music universities in Frankfurt and Freiburg, Germany; in Bratislava, Slovakia and in the United States at Bowdoin College, Portland Conservatory of Music and the University of New Haven. She also contributed with a performance of La Campanella by Franz Liszt in an educational film in Slovakia “Will I play Liszt?” Twenty-two piano pieces that Virsik composed while she was between the ages of five to ten were published in 2002 under the title “I Have Music.” Virsik resides in the United States.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
“…The second half began with three movements from the
First Book of Images by Debussy. The piece held the audience
spellbound with its rippling imagery...
Closing the performance were Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in E flat
Major, op.23, No.6 and Prokofief’s Sonata Opus 28, No.3. Both
were brilliant displays of keyboard fireworks…”
(Journal Tribune)
”…Yet it was in the supremely difficult Gaspard de
la Nuit by Maurice Ravel …where Virsik was in her element,
with alternating phrases of sparkling clarity interspersed with typical
Ravel glazed, underwater-like passages. It was a superb piece of
artistry.”
(Maine Times)
“…Hindemith’s 3rd Piano Sonata left behind an
overwhelming impression; a committed summation for the composer.”
(Stuttgarter Nachrichten)
“…It is always a pleasure to be reminded by one’s
own ears that a pianist is every bit as good as her reputation…The
orchestra was in good form, the perfect foil for Virsik as she played
this cheerful concerto (Mozart K. 488) with a judicious
mix of deadpan liveliness and impeccable precision.”
(Portland Press Herald)
“…The building of ‘her’ Schumann and Chopin
is holding on an extraordinary confidence even in the most difficult
passages, in which she is far from choosing careful, easy to master
tempi. If she gives to the fast movements certain inner pulse,
her gentle agogic nuances do not let lose the main contours. This
psychologic-manual confidence of Eva Virsik is admirable – as
is the calmness that radiates from her concentrated play. “
(Musical Life, Slovakia)