News

Read the latest news about Janina’s concerts, events, awards and CDs

Latest News

Coming Home

A concert in Montreal and touring in Southern Ontario


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Ovations in Calgary

Ravel G major concerto with the CPO and Alastair Willis


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Judging at the Geneva Competition

Meeting old and new friends in Switzerland


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Live on Boston's WGBH

Recital at the Boston Conservatory and a radio show


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A line up of stars

Mozart-Brahms Festival with Zukerman, Mehta, Perlman and Janina


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Major article in top German newspaper

On page 3 of Munich's "Sueddeutsche Zeitung"


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Christopher's "Piggie"

Janina in Christopher Plummer's Autobiographie


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The making of a new CD

A Chopin CD for the Chopin year 2010


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The making of new photos

Berlin photographer Michael Schilhansl takes photos


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Chopin Triumph in Germany

Concerts with the Badische Staatskapelle


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Newsletter

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Honorary Doctorate No.2
Queen's University honors Janina

Convocation Hall
Queen's University's Convocation Hall

In a moving ceremony filled with emotion as well as pomp and circumstance, Janina received an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Chancellor David Dodge, former Governor of the Bank of Canada, bestowed upon her the title of “Doctor of Laws” and she was hooded by her illustrious pianist colleague and friend, Dr. Ireneus Zuk. Principal Daniel Woolf gave the laudatory speech extolling Janina’s achievements both personal and professional.

And then Janina herself took to the podium. Speaking from the heart she urged the graduating class to follow their dreams, to work hard, but most importantly to never forget those less fortunate than themselves.

The night before, she performed an enthusiastically received benefit all-Chopin recital for the Queen’s University School of Music.

Speech
Janina receiving her diploma

It is a sweet irony that this doctorate is a “Doctorate of Laws”. Right before she was discovered by Arthur Rubinstein at the inaugural competition in his name in 1974, Janina had actually been accepted to Law School at the University of Montreal. But then her life changed drastically after her meeting with the legendary old man. She finds it rather satisfying to receive a doctorate in a subject she abandoned so many years ago. It is already Janina’s second honorary doctorate. The first being from Acadia University in Nova Scotia



RAVE REVIEWS FOR JANINA'S LATEST CD
”Liszt recital” wows the international press

Janina’s three bestselling Chopin releases on the occasion of the Chopin bicentenary last year gathered accolades from around the world (Sunday Times, London: “Top Ten Classical CDs of the Year”). This seemed a hard act to follow, but the first reactions for Janina’s latest CD “Liszt Recital” are in and they are as impressive as last year’s.

Especially in Germany, where Janina’s “Liszt Recital” had already been released in September, critics were overwhelmed. Eleonore Büching, one of Germany’s most influential music journalists hails Janina’s CD in the Frankfurter Allgemeine as “the most beautiful Liszt recording of this decade”. Jürgen Holwein from the „Stuttgarter Nachrichten“ wrote, seemingly deeply moved, his review in the form of a touching fairy tale.

Same goes for the UK. “The Independent” made it “Album of the Week” and there are two five-star reviews in “The Financial Times” and in “The Telegraph”. Richard Morrison of the London Times calls her recording “magical.”

Click here to read all these stellar reviews.



Challenge and Privilege
Playing Chopin for the Chopin Festival in Warsaw

 

Festival Poster
The poster for Janina's recital at Warsaw's Philharmonic Hall

To play Chopin in Warsaw is always a challenge as well as a privilege. Janina was very honored by the invitation to perform at the prestigious “Chopin and his Europe” festival, presented by the Warsaw Fryderyk Chopin Institute.

It was a hot summer evening when she played her program of Schubert, Liszt and Chopin at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall (click here to read the review).

A special treat was the extra day after the concert when Janina and her husband were chauffeured out to Zelasowa Wola, Chopin’s birthplace and given a tour of the magnificent new Chopin Museum by its director Kasimierz Monikiewicz in Warsaw

Zelasowa Wola
Janina in front of Chopin's brithplace in Zelasowa Wola



Schleswig-Holstein Festival - Part 2
A recital in a bank 

Kiel
An unusual concert venue: a historic bank building ...

Arguably one of the world’s most renowned and best loved summer festivals, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Northern Germany is famous for its very special concert venues, for instance huge barns, wonderful churches or majestic castles. In this case the venue was urban and quite unusual: an historic building from the turn of the last century whose interior was transformed into a modern bank of glass and steel, the "Förde Sparkasse" in Kiel, the capital of Germany´s northernmost federal state situated between the Baltic and the North Sea.

Kiel
... and the modern inside. Janina warming up in the bank's main hall

The recital itself was held in the bank’s main hall which had surprisingly good acoustics in the midst of ATM’s and safes. Completely sold out and playing on a glorious Steinway for a rapt audience, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening for Janina, the audience and apparently the critic (click here to read the review).



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