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Pianist Inna Faliks highlights new album and book in performances in LA and NYC

May 19: BroadStage (Santa Monica, CA) &
May 23: National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY)

Recitals feature works written for Faliks by Clarice Assad, Maya Miro Johnson, and more

Pianist Inna Faliks highlights her forthcoming album Manuscripts Don't Burn (rel. May 17, 2024, Sono Luminus) and her new book with recitals in Southern California and New York City.  On May 19 at 2 pm, she performs at the BroadStage in Santa Monica, CA and on May 23 at 7:30 pm she performs at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. Tickets and program details below.

The program features many works featured on the new album, including the premiere of Mike Garson's "Psalm for Odesa" (written in tribute to the Ukrainian city in which she was raised), and works written for the pianist by Ljova, Veronika Krausas, and Maya Miro Johnson. Other program highlights include Beethoven's "Eroica" Variations alongside works by Rodoin Shchedrin, Chopin, Paganini, and Bach. 

The forthcoming album Mansucripts Don't Burn features five world premiere recordings alongside works by Schubert, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Fazil Say. Several of the selections on the album relate to a seminal novel of art censorship - Mikhail Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita"; and others speak to the pianists' homeland of Ukraine and her Jewish heritage.  

"I consider this very personal recording to be something of a mirror image to my memoir, as it intertwines the literal images from "Master and Margarita" with more autobiographical themes and layers," says the pianist who first read the book as a child growing up in Soviet Ukraine. "I took it with me when my parents and I immigrated to the U.S. Throughout the years, the book played a role in my life. My childhood best friend from Odesa reread the book in adulthood and decided to find me - we are now together for 20 years, with two kids."

The recitals also feature Inna Faliks reading excerpts from her recently published memoir The Weight in the Fingertips: A Musical Odyssey from Soviet Ukraine to the World Stage (Backbeat Books, October 2023). The memoir has been widely praised, most recently in the LA Review of Books. Anne Midgette (formerly of The Washington Post) writes "There are a lot of musician's memoirs out there; this one, about a piano prodigy turned professional, is a standout. Highly recommended."

Pianist Inna Faliks
Manuscripts Don't Burn in recital

MAY 19, 2024 at 2 PM
BroadStage (1310 11th St., Santa Monica, CA)
Tickets start at $30 and are available at BroadStage.org

MAY 23, 2024 at 7:30 PM
National Sawdust (8 North 6th St, Brooklyn, NY)
Tickets are $25 and are available at NationalSawdust.org

PROGRAM
Ljova Zhurbin: Sirota for piano and historical recording*      
Mike Garson: Psalm for Odessa (world premiere)*
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G-sharp minor, Book 1
Rodion Shchedrin: Basso Ostinato                                 
Veronika Krausas: Have You Stopped Loving Me?*
Veronika Krausas: 14th on the Month of Nisan*
Maya Miro Johnson: Manuscripts Don't Burn*
Frederic Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasie
L.V. Beethoven: "Eroica" Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme
Paganini (arr. Liszt): La Campanella

*written for Inna Faliks

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

“Adventurous and passionate” (The New Yorker) Ukrainian-born American pianist Inna Faliks has made a name for herself through her commanding performances of standard piano repertoire, as well genre-bending interdisciplinary projects, and inquisitive work with contemporary composers. After her acclaimed teenage debuts at the Gilmore Festival and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages in recital and with many major orchestras, performing with conductors Leonard Slatkin, Keith Lockhart and many others.

Ms. Faliks collaborates with and premieres music by some of today’s most significant composers, including Billy Childs, Richard Danielpour, Timo Andres and Clarice Assad. She is known for her poetry-music series Music/Words, and has worked with a number of prominent poets. She regularly tours her monologue-recital Polonaise-Fantasie, the Story of a Pianist, which tells the story of her immigration to the United States from Odessa (recorded on Delos). Her discography includes Manuscripts Don't Burn (Sono Luminus, May 2024), which consists of world premiere recordings alongside 19th and 20th century works. Also in her catalogue: Reimagine: Beethoven and Ravel (Navona), and all-Beethoven and Rachmaninoff/Ravel/Pasternak discs on MSR Classics.

In addition to her other impressive accomplishments, she is is head of Piano Studies at UCLA and is a critically acclaimed writer. Her memoir, Weight in the Fingertips (Backbeat Books) was published in October 2023, and her articles and essays have appeared in Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Inna Faliks is a Yamaha Artist.