Joanna Schwarz
Special to The Chief
"Coming back to Squamish is like coming home," said Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska, founder of Piano Six and an artist of international acclaim.
She returns for a third time to the Eagle Eye Community Theatre on Friday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. to perform a program of Schubert, Mendelssohn and Chopin.
The concert, presented by Howe Sound Performing Arts Association (HSPAA), marks the first time Fialkowska performs in Squamish since her diagnosis of cancer in 2002. News of the cancer in her left arm shocked the music world.
Surgery followed with a complicated procedure to transplant back muscle to the arm. Two years of intense physiotherapy ensued. And although it was not a given that she would ever play again - or in the same capacity - Fialkowska never gave up hope.Howe Sound Performing Arts Association's warm relationship with the artist goes back many years. In 1993, a few music teachers got together with the goal to fundraise for a grand piano. Howe Sound Performing Arts Association was born.
As the founding president, I had the privilege to work with the HSPAA directors and the Squamish Rotary Club to organize a Gala Piano Fundraiser in 1997, which featured Fialkowska.
Shortly after, with additional funds from the Vancouver Foundation and the Tiampo family, the $37,000 instrument was purchased and placed in the Eagle Eye Theatre. With the support of the HSPAA team, I thereafter took on production of the annual Piano Six series. The artist and I have kept in touch since.
Fialkowska's dream in founding the Piano Six program was to bring classical music and top artists to small communities at an affordable price.
The series has brought Jon Kimura Parker, Andre Laplante, Angela Cheng, Janina Fialkowska twice, and Piano Six Friends, Stephane Lemelin and Bernadene Blaha and Kevin Fitz-Gerald as a piano duo to Squamish.
In addition, about 1,200 young people over the years have attended the Piano Six school concerts that HSPAA organizes.Tickets are $20 for adults $15 for seniors and $10 for students and are available at Billie's Bouquet, Mostly Books and the Sea to Sky Hotel.
