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
Upcoming highlights include returns to the Munich Philharmonic for Beethoven´s Coral Phantasy under Constantinos Carydis and at the White Nights Festival, Scriabin's Piano Concerto under Michael Sanderling Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 at Vienna's Musikverein, recitals in Germany, Austria and Italy, chamber music evenings with Claudius Popp, trio concerts with Renaud Capuçon and Daniel Müller-Schott, as well as concerts at Vienna's Konzerthaus, at the Beethoven Festival in Poland and at the Feldkirchfestival. A tour with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev and Shchedrin's Piano Concerto No. 4 rounds out the 2012-2013 season.
Since her first public performance in her hometown 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. 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.
In 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.
Anika Vavic made her debut at Vienna's Konzerthaus in 2003, playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B Flat minor. As a consequence, for the 2003/04 season she 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 - among others to Carnegie Hall, New York; Wigmore Hall, London; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Vienna Musikverein; Cologne Philharmonie; Cité de la Musique, Paris; Mozarteum Salzburg and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Together with the Musikverein, the ORF produced a CD of her recital program.
Anika Vavic works regularly with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic or the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Belgrade and Leipzig, collaborating with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Paavo Järvi, Stefan Blunier, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Jorma Panula.
She performs at festivals such as the "White Nights" in St. Petersburg, Valery Gergiev's Mikkelli Festival in Finland, the Piano Festival Ruhr, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Grafenegg Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Styriarte Graz, Klangbogen Wien, Istanbul Music Festival and the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad.
Anika Vavic also appears regularly at Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus. Recital tours have taken her to halls such as the Kennedy Center Washington, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Palau de la Música in Barcelona and in many further cities in Italy, Ireland, Finland, Japan, China and South America, Germany, Switzerland and of course Austria.
Her repertoire ranges from the baroque to contemporary music. Over the years, Mstislav Rostropovitch worked with her on Prokofiev's and Shostakovich's piano sonatas, piano concerti and chamber music works, introducing her to Russian contemporary works as well. Some of them have received their world premieres by Anika Vavic, for example the Piano Concerto dedicated to her by the Chinese-Austrian composer Shih (Requiem for Piano, Strings and Membranophone), whose Piano Quintet she also premiered (together with members of the Vienna Philharmonic in New York). Apart from Shih, Johannes Maria Staud, Kalevi Aho, Vlastimir Trajkovic, Galina Ustwolskaja, Henryk Gorecki and especially Rodion Shchedrin are among her favorite contermporary composers.
Her chamber music partners include Gautier Capuçon, Daniel Hope, Rainer Honeck, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Daniel Müller-Schott, Caroline Widmann and the Quintette Aquilon.
After she recorded her first CD with the Quarteto Amazonia from Brazil as well as the co-production of her solo-CD by ORF and Musikverein with the program of her Rising Stars tour (works by Haydn, Skryabin, Ravel and Prokofiev), recently the label Gramola has released her current recital CD with works by Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin and Prokofiev, which received outstanding reviews:
"Her brilliant, powerful playing has a certain orchestral touch, a phenomenon common in Russian pianists. Her classical sense for form prevents her from ever getting lost in the flow of the sounds. A strong, impressive CD which stands out from the mass of new releases."
Die Bühne
"Stupendous creative intelligence and expressive powers. Her recital CD, produced in her adopted hometown of Vienna, is full of energy and wit, but never lacks intense profundity either."
Kieler Nachrichten
(Translation: Alexa Nieschlag)
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