Making a Name for Herself

When pianist Ingrid Fliter was nominated for the $300,000 Gilmore award at the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the six members of the advisory committee — which included Ara Guzelimian, the senior adviser and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, and the renowned pianist and educator Gilbert Kalish — had never heard Ms. Fliter’s (pronounded FLEEter) name.But after methodically attending and analyzing her performances, the Gilmore committee chose the 34-year-old Ms. Fliter from a pool of some 450 top pianists, and their decision was reportedly unanimous.“I thought this award was only given to very well-known pianists, and I was just taking the little steps one takes to develop my career,” Ms Fliter said on the phone from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she was born. “When I was told, I was totally overwhelmed.”So while Ms. Fliter may not have an immediately recognizable name, that may soon change. Over the course of the last year, the pianist played acclaimed recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, causing her two recordings, of Chopin and Beethoven to be rushed releases. And this Thursday, she plays Beethoven’s first piano concerto with Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen as part of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart festival’s focus on the composer.Ms. Fliter’s depth, precision, and lively panache were in ample evidence as soon as she finished conservatory training and played Chopin at an event for Martha Argerich, the Argentine master whom the pianist calls her idol. Ms. Argerich promptly recommended she study with Vitalj Marguis in Freiburg, Germany. Ms. Fliter then studied with Carlo Bruno in Rome, and won fourth place in 1998’s Ferruccio Busoni competition in Bolzano, Italy, followed by the silver medal at the International Chopin competition in Warsaw in 2000.For a 2001 homecoming concert at the famed Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, which this writer attended, Ms. Fliter played Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto and encored with the composer’s Grand Valse Brillante, with the orchestra joining in the rambunctious applause.“At that point I was coming back from the Chopin competition,” Ms. Fliter recalled, “where I had just been dreaming of reaching the finals. After the judges’ decision, I had many opportunities to play the No. 2: The Chopin Society in Japan organized a tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic that included 17 performances in 20 days there. I thought that after the 10th time playing it, I wouldn’t find more beauties in the Second Concerto. It turned out to be the contrary, because that piece is its own world.”Her tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic included Avery Fisher Hall and the Kennedy Center in early 2002, but Ms. Fliter never imagined she’d receive the acclaim of being the Gilmore Artist, bestowed every four years, the previous recipients of which include Leif Ove Andsnes in 1998 and Piotr Anderszewski in 2002. As prestigious as the Van Cliburn Competition, the Gilmore’s process takes a different approach, sending anonymous representatives to concerts and recitals to hear the unsuspecting nominees in what Ms. Fliter termed “your natural habitat,” rather than putting contestants before juries.“I was in Atlanta at the end of 2005 and knew that the Gilmore director would attend the recital I was playing, perhaps to propose an invitation to perform at their festival in Kalamazoo,” she said. To Ms. Fliter’s surprise, he invited her to lunch and informed her that she had won the award.Her New York City recital debut followed last year at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, and in August 2006, she played at Caramoor to equal acclaim. VAI’s two releases were made from recordings that caught the Gilmore panel’s attention, and display Ms. Fliter’s confident rhythmic flexibility and control on Beethoven’s seventh and 18th sonatas, and astounding alacrity and impetuous melodic colorations in Chopin, notably on the Fantasie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor and the Ballade No. 4.During her January debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, EMI announced that she’d been signed to their elite roster. While mentioning that the first thing coming out will be a Chopin recording that has yet to be recorded, Ms. Fliter laughed with a silvery edge, clearly reveling in the opportunity and the challenge. “I feel that now a wonderful group of people are supporting me, helping to overcome the professional difficulties and the doubts — and we all have those. There’s a security in knowing that I have the resources to pursue my own research in becoming the artist I hope to become.”

Making a Name for Herself

Making a Name for Herself

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