Thaler Piano Series Brings Ingrid Fliter To Ithaca College For Free Performance

Keith Davis, 10/19/2009

ITHACA, NY — Ithaca College’s annual Rachel S. Thaler Concert Pianist Series will bring eminent pianist Ingrid Fliter to campus for a free concert on Thursday, Oct. 29. Beginning at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music, the program will offer a Beethoven sonata, waltzes by Frederic Chopin, and Robert Schumann’s “Symphonic Etudes.” Fliter will also present a master class on Friday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. in the Hockett Family Recital Hall.

In January 2006, Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter received the 2006 Gilmore Artist Award. Only the fifth pianist to have been so honored, the Gilmore Artist Award is made to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, combines musicianship and charisma with a desire for a career as a major international concert artist.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1973, Fliter began her piano studies in Argentina with Elizabeth Westerkamp. Fliter began playing public recitals at the age of 11 and made her professional orchestra debut at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires at 16. Already the winner of several Argentine competitions, she went on to win prizes at the Cantu International Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni Competition in Italy, and in 2000 was awarded the silver medal at the Frederic Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

Fliter made her major American orchestra debut with the Atlanta Symphony in 2006, just days after the announcement of her Gilmore Award. Since then she has made debut appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the San Francisco, St. Louis, National, Cincinnati, Toronto, Detroit, Dallas, Colorado and Oregon Symphonies; the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the Mostly Mozart, Grant Park, Aspen and Blossom festivals. Equally busy as a recitalist, Fliter has recently performed in New York at Zankel Hall at Carnegie and the Metropolitan Museum, in Fort Worth for the Van Cliburn Foundation and in Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Vancouver, Santa Barbara and Kansas City.

Established in 1991 in honor of a talented pianist and longtime Ithaca College supporter, the Rachel S. Thaler Concert Pianist Series has brought to the College such world-class virtuosos as Awadagin Pratt, Yefim Bronfman, Gilbert Kalish and Garrick Ohlsson. For more information about Ithaca College School of Music concerts, visit http://www.ithaca.edu/concerts or call (607) 274-3717.