Official Website | Ladislav Fanzowitz

Ladislav Fanzowitz (1980) is a Slovak solo and chamber music pianist and saxophonist and old-jazz lover who is today rightly considered a top representative of the European performing arts and among the most all-round musicians in Czechia and Slovakia.

After finishing his studies at the Bratislava Conservatoire, he continued in studying Piano at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (under prof. Marián Lapšanský), at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (under prof. Wolfgang Watzinger) and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (under prof. Marián Lapšanský). As a pianist of extraordinary abilities, he became the prize-winner on many domestic and international competitions, e. g. the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Mariánské Lázně (CZ), the International E. Nyiregyhazi Piano Competition (Kraków, PL), the International Johann Nepomuk Hummel Piano Competition in Bratislava and others. His debut CD from 2006, with Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and virtuosic transcriptions of Horowitz and Cziffra as well, caught attention of the professional public with his limitless potential and a wide variety of musical expression. Ladislav Fanzowitz is today an established soloist and a chamber performer with a discography containing almost 40 titles. He is the recipient of the Fric Kafenda Award for extraordinary concert and recording activity, the Ján Cikker Award and Radio_Head Awards for the best classical music album of 2023.

As a renowned soloist with repertoire containing over 30 important piano concerts of 18th to 20th century, he plays concerts all around the world (USA, China, India, Malaysia, Oman, Turkey and Cyprus). He regularly performs with many Czech, Slovak and European orchestras among others with PKF – Prague Philharmonia, Slovak Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra, The Slovak State Philharmonic Košice, Slovak Sinfonietta, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, State Philharmonic orchestra of Izmir and Antalia in Turkey, Zielona Góra Philharmonic, Solistes Européens Luxembourg, Bruno Walter Festival Orchestra, Pressburger Philharmoniker and others. These concert opportunities led to his cooperation with conductors such as Ondrej Lenárd, Vladimír Válek, Friedrich Haider, Alexander Rahbari, František Vajnar, Jerzy Swoboda, Leoš Svárovský, Martin Leginus, Kirk Trevor, Justus Franz, Mário Košík, Zbyněk Müller, Jack Martin Händler, David Giménez Carreras and others. Fanzowitz also collaborates with the Slovak National Theater in the ballet performances Manuscripts of Masters (solo piano) and Chaplin (saxophone).

In his repertoire he likes to seek out highly demanding and little-performed compositions, which on account of their arduousness are rarely encountered in the concert halls. His extraordinary technical dispositions allow him to perform and record titles of authors such as Ernö Dohnányi, Leopold Godowsky, Grazyna Baczewicz, August Klughart, Ignaz Lachner, Hugo Kauder or Robert Kahn. His cooperation with violinist Milan Pala has a special place in the work of Ladislav Fanzowitz. The result of the connection of these two extraordinary performers is a growing series of recordings of complete compositions for violin and piano of world-known authors (Beethoven, Brahms, Grieg, Suchoň, Shostakovich, Bartók, Weinberg) that has gained a recognition of the professional reviewers.

Among the most important achievements is the recording of Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 and 2 of Bratislava native Ernő Dohnányi with the Košice State Philharmonic (2023), three CDs with Dohnányi’s solo music for piano (2013, 2018, 2021), a CD by Leopold Godowsky (2012) with a recording of his Piano Sonata in E minor, the performance of which is a unique achievement on a global scale or the CD Jozef Grešák (2020), in which he performed as a soloist in the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Košice State Philharmonic and also as the Music director of the album.

Another pillar in the production of Ladislav Fanzowitz is Slovak music production. The title Slovak piano sonatas is a premiere recording of works of many contemporary Slovak composers such as Ľubica Čekovská, Vladimír Šarišský, Ilja Zeljenka, Roman Berger and Evgeny Irshai, with whom Ladislav Fanzowitz works on a regular basis. The natural result of this creative cooperation is a multitude of piano compositions dedicated to him and lots of chamber projects.

Ladislav Fanzowitz is a permanent member of chamber ensembles the Hugo Kauder Trio and The Berger Trio. Their repertoire is characteristic by a wide scope of authors ranging from classics of 18th and 19th centuries to contemporary music or introducing unknown, forgotten composers and domestic authors. The Berger Trio is named after a Slovak composer Roman Berger, with whom the members of the trio cooperate artistically over an extended period and whose compositions were published in 2015 by NAXOS under the name Berger: Pathetique.

As a pianist who was looking for a musical expression outside of classical music, Ladislav Fanzowitz materialized his relationship to old jazz by founding his own swing orchestra, the Fats Jazz Band. Under his artistic directory, the Fats Jazz Band performs authentic American, English, Czech and Slovak music production of the 20s till 40s of the past century. Authentic performances of Fats Jazz Band are enriched by a play on original historical instruments form the 30s.

The versatile artist has also been playing the saxophone since 2013 and is a tireless promoter of the interpretation of classical music on this instrument in Slovakia. In 2014 he founded the Pressburg Saxophone Quartet, whose repertoire consists of classical compositions (A. Glazunov, J.-B. Singeleé, E. Bozza, P.-M. Dubois, C. Pascal, J. Irshai, M. Lejava) as well as transcriptions of the ragtime music recordings from 1910 to 1920, when saxophone reborn as an inspiration for both – performers and composers. In 2022, he completed his Master’s degree in saxophone at Fontys Academy of Music and Performing Arts in the Netherlands under one of the greatest saxophone figures in classical music, composer and conductor Dr. Andreas van Zoelen. Fanzowitz is credited with releasing the first Slovak monographic CD dedicated to the saxophone work Nuclear Sax (2020), on which, in addition to his saxophone quartet, the Slovenian saxophonist Lev Pupis and the author of the music, Evgeny Irshai, also performed. In r. 2020, the world premieres of Alexander Rahbari‘s compositions performed by L. Fanzowitz on saxophones were published by Naxos – Symphonic Poem No. 9 ‘Nohe Khan’ for solo baritone saxophone and orchestra and Symphonic Poem No. 10 ‘Morshed’ for C melody saxophone, harp, marimba, vibraphone, percussion and vocals (CD My Mother Persia vol. 3). In latest album The Saxophone Connections published by Pavlík Records (2022) Fanzowitz presents a saxophone in various forms of classical and contemporary music in combination with a violin, cello, bassoon, trumpet or second saxophone.

More than 10 contemporary compositions for the saxophone are dedicated to Fanzowitz, and he premiered more than 30 compositions using the saxophone in Slovakia, either solo or in chamber ensembles. As a saxophonist, he performed solo with the Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, Trnava Chamber Orchestra, in the Chaplin ballet of the Slovak National Theatre and he is an external saxophonist of the Slovak Philharmonic (Musorgsky, Gershwin) and other projects. In 2024, his sheet music arrangements of Bach’s parts and suites for all types of saxophones were published by the Hudobné centrum publishing house. He currently works as a teacher at the Conservatory in Nitra and is also a collector and restorer of historic saxophones.

Fanzowitz is also active and enthusiastic organizer of cultural and education life in Slovakia. Besides spreading awareness of classical music and old jazz in Slovakia he also established international festival of authentic early jazz music Golden Age Festival, multi-genre festival Hudba Modre and since 2017 organizes the only master classes in classical music on saxophone in Slovakia, Saxophobia Bratislava, which is visited annually by more than 50 students from 7 countries, and during which there will be several exceptional concerts for the public, including a concert of 60-member saxophone orchestra on Slovak Radio. He invites the biggest names in classical saxophone to teach and share their knowledge with students from whole Europe (Rachèr Saxophone Quartet, Oto Vrhovnik, Philippe Portejoie, Pawel Gusnar, Andreas van Zoelen, Christine Rall, Elliot Riley, Lev Pupis, Erzsébet Seleljo, Hans de Jong, Bence Szepesi, Barbara Strack-Hanish, Ryszard Zoledziewski, Markus Holzer, Alexander Stepanov, Kateřina Pavlíková, Oscar Trompenaars, Michal Knot).

DISCOGRAPHY:

Classical music:

2024 Musica Slovaca – Pressburg Saxophone Quartet (© Swingmánia)

2023 Ernő Dohnányi: Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 so Štátnou filharmóniou Košice (© Pavlik Records)

2022 The Saxophone Connections (© Pavlik Records)

2021 Ernö Dohnányi vol. 3 – piano works (© Pavlik Records)

2020 Solitude Diaries – Mathias Rüegg (© Lotus Records)

2020 A Glass Of Glass – Music for Two Pianos by Evgeny Irshai (© VŠMU)

2020 Alexander Rahbari – My Mother Persia vol. 3 (© Naxos)

2020 Evgeny Irshai – Nuclear Sax (© Pavlik Records)

2020 Mieczysław Weinberg – Violin sonatas (© Pavlik Records)

2018 Ernö Dohnányi vol. 2 – piano works (© Pavlik Records)

2018 Dmitri Shostakovich – Violin Sonatas – with Milan Pala (© Pavlik Records)

2016 Edward H. Grieg – Violin Sonatas – with Milan Pala (© Pavlik Records)

2016 Sax-O-Phun (© Pavlik Records)

2015 Ludwig van Beethoven – Violin Sonatas – with Milan Pala (© Pavlik Records)

2015 Hugo Kauder Trio 2015 (© Viva Musica Records)

2015 Berger Trio (© Naxos)

2014 Johannes Brahms – Violin Sonatas – with Milan Pala (© Pavlik Records)

2013 Ernö Dohnányi vol. 1 – piano works (© Pavlik Records)

2013 Eugen Suchoň – Early compositions for piano (1924 – 1928) (© Hudobné centrum)

2013 Evgeny Irshai – In the Space of Love (© Hudobný fond)

2012 Leopold Godowsky – Piano sonata in E minor (© Pavlik Records)

2010 Branislav Dugovič – clarinet (© Diskant)

2010 Hugo Kauder Trio (© Pavlik Records)

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