Indjic Eugen - Towarzystwo Ferenca Liszta we Wrocławiu
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Indjic Eugen

He was born in Belgrade in 1947. His mother was a Russian amateur pianist and his father a Serbian army general under King Peter II of Yugoslavia.


 

Imigrating to the US with his mother at the age of four, he there became interested in music after hearing a recording of Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu and Polonaise in A flat major. Moved by a desire to master these pieces, he took systematic piano lessons with Georgian pianist, Liubov Stephani. Mr. Indjic made his first public performance at the age of nine, appearing with his school orchestra (in Springfield, Mass.) in Mozart’s D-minor Piano Concerto. After two years, Mrs. Stephani introduced Indjic to Alexander Borovsky, the eminent Russian pianist and classmate of Serge Prokofiev, who taught him in Boston for the next five years (1959–1964).

 

At the age of 11, he was already playing Liszt’s Campanella and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 on NBC television and at 12, made his first recording for RCA Victor on Rachmaninov’s own piano, playing Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. At 13, he performed Liszt’s Piano Concerto in E flat major and a year later the Brahms Second Piano Concerto with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra.

 

Between 1961 and 1969, invited by Arthur Fiedler, Eugen Indjic appeared several times each season with the Boston Pops orchestra. His first concert tour (consisting of 13 concerts) was in Denmark (1963), together with Alexander Borovsky.

 

“He plays Chopin as a pole, Debussy as a Frenchman and Prokofiev as a Russian master” wrote the “Politiken” of Copenhagen. After his graduation year from Phillips Academy in Andover, Erich Leinsdorf invited him to play Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major with the Boston Symphony, making him the youngest soloist ever to appear with that orchestra. Leonard-Bernstein Scholar at Harvard University, he studied musicology and composition with Laurence Berman and Leon Kirchner, graduating “cum laude” in 1969. During his Harvard years, he took private lessons at the Juilliard School of Music with Mieczyslaw Münz and Rosina Lhévinne’s apprentice Lee Thompson.

 

In 1968, he met Arthur Rubinstein, who remained until his death a friend and mentor , calling Indjic “a world-class of rare musical and artistic perfection”. At that time he continued studying composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

 

He settled in France in 1972 after marrying Odile Rabaud, granddaughter of the French composer Henri Rabaud, who succeeded Fauré as director of the Paris Conservatory, becoming French-American.

 

Prize-winner of three international contests - Warsaw ( 1970), Leeds (1972), and Rubinstein (1974), Indjic has performed with the leading orchestras of the United States, Europe and Asia, and under such conductors as Bernstein, Fedoseiev, Gergiev, Joachum, Kubelik, Leinsdorf, Sanderling, Sinopoli, Solti, de Waart and Zinman, among others. He continues to play regularly on great world stages such as the large Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, Queen Elisabeth Hall, the great Concertgebouw, the Musikverein, Salle Pleyel and Theatre des Champs- Elysées, Tchaikovsky Hall La Scala, etc.

 

Eugen Indjic was invited to participate in a televised co-production (France, Poland, Japan) of Chopin’s complete works and has recorded for Polskie Nagrania / Muza, Sony, RCA Victor, Claves and Calliope. His discography includes works by Chopin (Piano Concertos, complete Ballades, Scherzi, Impromptus, Sonatas, Mazurkas, etc.) Debussy, Schumann, Prokofiev, as well as Beethoven. Arte Nove Classics has released live performances with the SWF Orchestra of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in B- flat minor with Ahronovich and Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations with Sinopoli. His recording of Chopin’s Mazurkas was doubly acclaimed because of the Joyce Hatto hoax. The English pianist signed her name to this disc and received rave reviews.

 

In addition to performing, Indjic regularly teaches master classes in Europe, Japan and the Unites Sates, and is a frequent jury member of international competitions including the Chopin, Liszt, Rubinstein, Prague Spring , etc.

 

In 2010 , he was named “artist-in-residence” at the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

 

"I do not know what to admire most in him: the supreme command of the instrument, the refined delicacy of sound, an interpretation, scrupulous and transparent in everyway… The concert itself becomes a work of art. One could not conceive a more complete musicality and more exquisite perfection, attached to this simplicity that strikes everyone." Vladimir Jankélévitch

 

  • Eugen Indjic

    Eugen Indjic