Biography
I consider Anika Vavic to be an extraordinarily gifted pianist.
Mariss Jansons
Great talent, brilliant technique and smart and passionate playing.
Zubin Mehta
"The great gift of symphonic piano playing: as if several instruments were resounding at the same time"
Daniel Barenboim
Beautiful playing, understanding of the classical style and great technique.
Seiji Ozawa
No denying that she is an important newcomer
Gramophon
A childhood winner of numerous international competitions and awards, the young pianist Anika Vavic began studying in Vienna at the age of sixteen under Noel Flores at the University of Music and Performing Arts. She also received significant artistic inspiration from Elisabeth Leonskaja, Lazar Berman, Oleg Maisenberg, Alexander Satz and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Since her first public performance in her hometown of Belgrade at the age of eight, she has consistently excelled in solo recitals, piano concerts, radio and TV programmes as well as in various chamber music formations. In October 2001 she won the Second Steinway-Competition in Vienna, receiving a further special prize for the best interpretation of Haydn. In November 2001 she was awarded a scholarship by the prestigious Herbert von Karajan Centrum in Vienna and the Gottfried von Einem Foundation.
In 2002 she received the Austrian National Award for Women in the Arts.
For the 2003/04 season Anika Vavic was chosen by the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus for the highly esteemed „Rising Stars" concert-cycle, which has taken her to the most famous concert halls in the world for recitals - amongst others to Carnegie Hall, New York; Wigmore Hall, London; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Vienna Musikverein; Cologne Philharmonie; Megaron, Athens; Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Cité de la Musique, Paris, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden etc.
The cycle was accompanied by the release of her recital programme on CD produced by ORF and Vienna Musikverein.
She made her debut at Vienna's Konzerthaus in 2003, playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B-flat minor. This was followed immediately by her debuts with the Munich Philharmonic, at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, styriarte and the Ruhr Piano Festival.
Anika Vavic has since returned frequently to the Konzerthaus and Musikverein of Vienna, in addition to recitals in London, New York, Zurich, Bern, Barcelona, Bergamo, Lodi, Como, Santiago de Chile, Heidelberg Spring, Graz Styriarte, Berlin, Kiel, Belgrade, Peking, Moscow, at Washington's Kennedy Center, in Ireland, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Salzburg's Mozarteum, Laeiszhalle Hamburg and at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, as well as a tour through Japan.
In 2010, she will appear for the third time at the Stars of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.
Anika Vavic has also performed with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgrade Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dusan Skovran Chamber Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, MDR Orchestra Leipzig, Allegro Vivo Orchestra in Austria, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Hamburg, Gran Canaria Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Kammerphilharmonie, Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra, Kieler Symphonie Orchester, Sinfonie Orchester Biel and the New Zurich Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has worked with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Paavo Järvi, Stefan Blunier, Andres Orosco-Estrada, Max Pommer, Francesco La Vecchia, Rengim Gökmen, Christopher Warren-Green, Vjekoslav Sutej and Georg Fritzsch.
Her chamber music partners include Daniel Hope, Gautier Capuçon and Ernst Ottensammer, and members of the Vienna Philharmonic. She has premiered works by composers such as Johannes Maria Staud and Shih, whose world premiere of "Requiem for Piano, Strings and Percussions" - dedicated to her - she performed in Germany in the fall of 2009.
Anika Vavic´s repertoire ranges from baroque music to contemporary works by composers such as Kalevi Aho, John Cage, John Adams, Ustwolskaja , Gorecki, Rodion Shchedrin etc.
She studied the piano works of Prokofiev and Shostakovich with Mstislav Rostropovich.
Anika Vavic's passion for literature led her to write her first novel. "Vers la flamme" is a fictional story about a famous young Russian pianist, obsessed by Scriabin and his "Mysterium", throwing a light on the artist's life behind the scenes. The reader is given an opportunity to observe the world of the music professional from a new angle. The novel is to be translated into several languages and will be published soon. She will accompany its publication with several Skrjabin solo recitals and performances of Skrjabin's Piano Concerto.
2010 saw the release of her CD with works by Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin and Prokofiev on the Gramola label - according to the critics, a "strong, impressive CD which stands out from the great number of new releases".
