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  • 12/12/2023

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About

Ivana Gavrić’s playing has been described as “altogether of an extraordinary calibre” (BBC Music Magazine) and “notable for its beautiful sound, musical integrity and introspection” (The Independent). She has attracted considerable praise for her interpretations of a broad repertoire, the Washington Post describing her playing as “impressive, insightful…ravishing”.

Ivana is drawn to composers like Janáček, Grieg and Chopin, who each take features of their respective homelands to create a distinctive musical voice, whether from the landscape and nature or from elements of folk music and dance. A long-standing collaboration with the award-winning composer, Cheryl Frances-Hoad has led to solo works and more recently a concerto entitled Between the Skies, the River and the Hills written for Ivana. Ivana is also committed to performing works by female composers of the past, particularly Cécile Chaminade and Dora Pejačević.

Ivana’s recent concerto performances include Grieg and Rachmaninov with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, and Beethoven’s Emperor with the RPO at the Royal Albert Hall. She has also performed with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, South Denmark Philharmonic and Southbank Sinfonia, and has collaborated with conductors including Rafael Payare, Nicholas Collon, Christian Kluxen, Karin Hendrickson and Ben Gernon. She especially enjoys working with chamber orchestras, and highlights to date have included performing with the Trondheim Soloists, Aurora Orchestra and recently Camerata Zürich.

 

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Ivana has been heard on the concert platform at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Tonhalle Zürich, KKL Lucerne and the Gilmore Piano Festival, as well as across China and in Canada. She created a sensation with her debut album In the Mists, winning BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year. Her recording of Grieg: Piano Works was selected as Gramophone Editor’s Choice and the Grieg Society’s Recording of the Year, while her Chopin disc was chosen as Classic FM’s CD of the week.

A dedicated chamber musician, Ivana has partnered colleagues including Maxim Vengerov, Matthew Barley and Thomas Gould at festivals in the UK and across Europe. She has taken part in the IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Sessions and is an alumna of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme as well as Live Music Now, the outreach scheme established by the late Lord Menuhin. Outside the concert hall she is featured playing Chopin and Beethoven in BBC2’s adaptation of The Line of Beauty, and Bach in Anthony Minghella’s film Breaking and Entering.

Born into a musical family in Sarajevo and raised in the UK, Ivana studied at the University of Cambridge and at the Royal College of Music. Her teachers include Niel Immelman, Peter Bithell and James Gibb. Additionally, Ivana has had the opportunity to study with esteemed musicians such as Menahem Pressler, Ferenc Rados, Dmitry Bashkirov, Boris Berman, Stephen Kovacevich and Leif Ove Andsnes. Ivana is indebted to the support of many trusts, including the Frankopan Fund (Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts), the MBF, The Solti Foundation, The Nicholas Boas Trust, The Richard Carne Trust and the RVW Trust. Ivana is proud to be an ambassador for the charity ‘Music Action International’.

Forthcoming highlights include returning to teach and perform extensively at the Dartington Summer School and her debut at the Presteigne Festival.

  • 'there’s a keen intelligence at work, as well as a formidable technique'
    The Times
  • Superbly played with poetry and refinement rarely encountered these days'
    International Record Review
  • 'Gavric is a complete pianist: technically proficient, very musical, intelligent and exciting.'
    American Record Guide
  • 'There's a quality to her sound, something peppery, dark and candid'
    The independent
  • ‘…her playing is altogether of an extraordinary calibre’
    BBC Music Magazine
  • ‘hugely impressive… This is very high-class Schubert playing indeed.’
    The Guardian

Press

Live Reviews

Acclaim for Wigmore Hall Coffee Concert, April 2017

“Ivana Gavrić drew a full-house to Wigmore Hall for a well-planned programme drenched in expressive nineteenth-century Romanticism and full of poetic imagery. She is a pianist with great sensitivity to mood and an ability to create atmosphere. Rhapsodie espagnole obliged Gavrić to be a more conventional virtuoso, opening with a grand flourish and then bringing delicacy, rhythmic lift and a sense of fun to the whole; the escalating tension at the end was exhilarating. As an encore Gavrić played another Chopin Mazurka (in C, Opus 24/2), elegantly and intimately, a perfect end to a quite gorgeous recital.” Brian Barford, Classical Source Read full review here


Acclaim for recitals with Zuercher SingAkademie, Sept 2016

“Zauberisch am Flügel: Ivana Gavric’ Luzerner Zeitung


Acclaim for Wigmore Hall Showcase Recital, November 2013

“The young British pianist presented a truly outstanding recital at Wigmore Hall… She opened with a superfine account of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, the music’s lightness, poetry and elegance being admirably conveyed.” Robert Matthew Walker, Musical Opinion Read full review here


Acclaim for Washington DC Debut, October 2013

“After surfacing from her deep and much-acclaimed immersion in the music of Czech composer Leos Janacek a couple of years ago, the British pianist Ivana Gavric embarked on a new journey, this one into the music of Edvard Grieg. She was so intent on understanding the Norwegian composer that she even traveled to see the landscapes that inspired him — and the results were strikingly clear in her impressive, insightful U.S. debut Sunday at the Phillips Collection, where Grieg and Janacek formed the core of a program that linked late romanticism to 20th-century modernism.” Washington Post Read full review here


Acclaim for The Gilmore Festival Rising Stars Series USA recital, October 2013

“Second in the Gilmore Rising Stars Series this season was Ivana Gavric, gifted Sarajevo-born pianist who charmed a jammed Wellspring Theater audience Sunday afternoon. Unassailable technique and appealing stage presence earned her appreciative listeners.” M Live Read full review here


Acclaim for Kings Place Festival, September 2011

“As demonstrated in her recent recording of the sonata From the Street, Gavric has Janacek’s music completely under her fingers: the plaintiveness, irascibility, humour and turbulence. There’s a quality to her sound, something peppery, dark and candid” The Independent


“the kaleidoscopic Violin Sonata, where Gavric and Thomas Gould sailed in splendour through its multiple moods, aggressive, hushed, folksy, or forlorn. Gavric shone best in the two-movement torso of the 1905 Piano Sonata, moulding its Czech- flavoured rhythms and motifs with a natural kick or easy flow, according to the moment. Fiery drama wasn’t forgotten, but nothing shrieked to excess.” The Times


Acclaim for Wigmore Hall debut, 15 July 2010

“She stamped her character on the evening from the off with a kaleidoscopic performance of Bartók’s Suite, Op 14. There’s a colloquial ease to Gavrić’s way with the Sprechstimme-like Eastern European melodies of Janácek, Bartók and the Prokofiev Sonata in D minor, Op 14; she has the musical equivalent to the gift of the gab… In the Rachmaninov she showed a different side: Gavrić the singer and poet. What a line she spun… Gavrić has a great career ahead of her, of that there is no doubt.” Theartsdesk


“Gavrić managed beautifully the sombre ‘orchestral’ colouring with drum rolls and trombone accents implied… In gesture as well as texture this music came from yet another space and the recitalist proved as well attuned to it as to everything else on her programme.” Musical Opinion


Acclaim for Janacek Festival, The Forge, 4-6 February 2011

“a highly enjoyable and fascinating mini-festival held in the intimate and acoustically pristine surrounds of The Forge. Gavrić matches her communicative pianistic technique to her endearing presence: a winning combination. One of the Festival’s highlights was Gavrić’s solo recital in which she performed Janáček’s three main piano works: the Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, the cycle On an Overgrown Path, and In the Mists. Gavrić found special delight of the radiant colours she drew from the piano: gentle touch, ability to delve into the inner life of the sound, to play from the heart, and, at times, to deliver a more robust dramatic and forthright projection. She was immersed in Janáček’s style, especially the folk elements, and the emphasis of dissonance in the melody to add poignancy. Compelling pianistic artistry… This was a fascinating weekend of discovery that attracted large audiences and whetted one’s appetite for more.” Classical Source Read full review here

CD Reviews

Critical acclaim for Origins RCD 1038

“Origins is a very fun CD. The Haydn Concerto is perfect: clear, stylish, and refreshing.”    Sir Roger Norrington

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“Ivana Gavrić is a formidable, thoughtful, versatile presence throughout. Her Haydn may be as light as a feather in the outer movements, especially in the finale, but there is both elegance and real depth in the central Un poco adagio that raises it way above the workaday. And yet there is a welcome degree of distance too; Gavrić carefully avoids getting lost in its myriad beauties and allows Haydn to speak on his own terms. Her friend’s cadenza provides a degree of expressive wriggle-room which she is happy to exploit. The outer movements are propulsive and objective, tautly driven by Hendrickson’s clear-sighted direction. There’s plenty of vim in Gavrić’s lean, decisive playing.

The solo piano pieces are each thoughtfully delivered by Gavrić, they work well as a sequence and sound fabulous… Which leads me to Frances-Hoad’s impressive new piano concerto Between the Skies, the River and the Hills. One really senses that all the performers are having a ball in this exhilarating music.”

Richard Hanlon, Musicweb International (Read full review here)

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“Her spirited reading of this [Haydn Concerto in D major], with the Southbank Sinfonia under Karin Hendrickson, precedes solo pieces on a five-note cypher of Haydn’s name written by eminent French composers…these include Debussy’s aqueous Hommage and Ravel’s delectable Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn. Gavrić complements these pieces with Stolen Rhythm… composed by Cheryl Frances-Hoad [and] Her substantial and touching piano concerto Between the Skies, the River and the Hills. This is a beautiful collection, vividly recorded.”

BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2019

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“Ivana Gavric plays with clarity, supple grace and a finely shaded colour palette.”

Gramophone (Read full review here)

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‘Es ist ein recht Blumenstrauss, den die britische Pianistin Ivana Gavric da auf diesem Album präsentiert. Doch das zentrale Werk ist nun einmal das Klavierkonzert Haydns, das Gavric so lebendig und nuanciert-transparent spielt, dass einem die Lebensfreude sofort in die Ohren (und auch Beine) kommt.”

Piano News

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Critical acclaim for Chopin EDN1086

“(Ivana Gavric) shows how good taste and solid technical accomplishment can reap rewards. … stylish, unexaggerated readings.’ Gramophone

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“The early Mazurka in F minor demonstrates just how good Gavric is, Chopin’s more arresting chord progressions played teasingly and hesitantly, as if she’s making them up on the spot. The minor key numbers are especially effective, Op. 34’s moody C sharp minor Mazurka another standout. Gavric can also do folksy charm: Op. 33’s D major number is an unpretentious peasant stomp with a wonderful payoff.” The ArtsDesk

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Critical acclaim for Grieg Piano Works, CHRCD067

“Captivating disc…Gavric possesses what I can only describe as a beautiful musical personality” Editor’s Choice Gramophone Read full review here


“Gavric delivers an electrifying performance”  BBC Music Magazine Read full review here


“Ivana Gavrić here offers a much wider perspective in playing that is instinctively attuned to the moods and shades of the music.”  The Telegraph Read full review here


Critical acclaim for ‘From the street’, Champs Hill Records CHRCD026

“it’s hardly surprising that Gavric offers hypnotically compelling accounts of the two Janacek works… After that, the first of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales provides a welcome sense of exuberance though Gavric really excels in the more reflective dances filled with sensuous harmonies … Likewise, she delivers poetic and marvellously voiced playing in the slow movement of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Sonata.”

BBC Music Magazine, December 2011


“the most impressive performance is that of Prokofiev’s Second Sonata. Gavric’s is, without question, the greatest and most revelatory performance of this extraordinarily original work I have ever heard. She is superlative here… She moulds an extraordinarily impressive statement on the composer’s behalf, which one could wait many years to hear, raising the stature of this work considerably. Her Ravel is on a similar level of excellence – beautifully expressive, driven by a sure understanding of what this music is about …A most impressive recital disc, outstandingly well recorded” (Outstanding)

International Record Review, December 2011 Read full review here


“Ivana Gavric follows up her acclaimed debut disc with another well-imagined programme that embraces a variety of works all composed in the very early years of the 20th century… She highlights the Gallic taste and style of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales and relishes the challenges and vibrant originality of Prokofiev’s Second Sonata. All in all, a highly appealing recital.”

The Daily Telegraph, September 2011


“in both the Sonata and the miniatures of On an Overgrown Path she shows the same careful grading of Janácek’s textures, and perfect judgment of mood and manner that made her earlier performance so convincing.”

The Guardian, September 2011


“The intimacy, finely honed nuance, conversational flow and subtle underlining of the composer’s harmonic surprises that Gavric brings to each of the short pieces comprising On an Overgrown Path prove more memorable still.”

Gramophone, December 2011


“‘On An Overgrown Path’ in particular is absolutely mesmeric. The remaining works on the disc, by Ravel and Prokofiev, are played with a marvellous spontaneity and free-wheeling virtuosity that captures perfectly their varying moods. A hugely impressive release.”

The Big Issue, November 2011


“The performances have clarity, subtlety and beautifully fluid phrasing… there’s a keen intelligence at work, as well as formidable technique.”

The Times, September 2011


Critical acclaim for debut recording ‘In the Mists’ for Champs Hill Records CHRCD009

“her playing is altogether of an extraordinary calibre.”

BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 Read full review here


“[Ivana Gavrić] is developing into one of the most important young pianists to have emerged in recent years… superbly played, with a poetry and refinement rarely encountered these days, either on or off a disc. There is no doubt in my mind that this CD could well mark the beginning of an outstanding international recording career: playing of this quality does not come along every day. Above all, Ivana Gavrić is a true musician.” (Outstanding)

International Record Review, October 2010 Read full review here


“a hugely impressive CD… Gavrić commands a wonderfully wide range of keyboard colour. This is very high-class Schubert playing indeed.” Andrew Clements, The Guardian, January 2011 Read more here


“one of the most interesting and assured debuts on disc in 2010” Andrew McGregor on CD Review, BBC Radio 3


“a particularly poignant account of Janáček’s In the Mists. Her taste, lyrical allure and tonal glow suit Liszt’s Three Petrarch Sonnets well… beautifully expressed” The Daily Telegraph, August 2010 Read full review here


“Gavric’s playing throughout is notable for its beautiful sound, musical integrity and introspection.” Gramophone, November 2010 Read full review here


“Gavric seems drawn to the points at which sunshine and shadow converge… the phrasing carefully considered and imaginatively voiced.” The Independent on Sunday, August 2010 Read full review here


“A velvety touch, unerring sense of tempo and phrasing… a compelling recital” Classical Music Magazine Read full review here

Features

Features

Read Ivana’s Musician’s Diary Entry for the Gramophone Magazine December 2011.


Ivana is featured as ‘Rising Star’ in the BBC Music Magazine’s December 2010 issue.


Ivana is featured as Gramophone’s ‘One to watch’ in the September 2010 issue.

Extras

‘I had the opportunity to work with Ivana on Anthony Minghella’s film Breaking and Entering and I have discovered the most musical and lovely person with whom I have ever worked…she is an artist with most delicate taste…it was a joy and a treat to work with her.’ — Gabriel Yared, Composer – Oscar and Golden Globe winner for his score for The English Patient – Composer of numerous film scores including Betty Blue, Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr Ripley


In 2005, Ivana had the pleasure of working with the Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who invited her to be a hand-double for the actress Juliette Binoche in the film Breaking and Entering. She was later asked to perform Bach on the soundtrack, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, where she had the great opportunity of working with the composer Gabriel Yared. The Soundtrack CD and film DVD are available for purchase. A few months later, Ivana was invited by the award-winning director Saul Dibb to play the role of the Czech pianist, Nina Glaserova, in the BBC2 adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning book The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. She performed Beethoven Sonata Les Adieux and Chopin Sonata No 2 live for the TV drama, which is now available on DVD.

Recordings

Repertoire

Concerti

Bach
Concerto in F minor BWV1056
Beethoven  
Concerto No 1 in C
Concerto No 2 in Bb
Concerto No 3 in C minor
Concerto No 4 in G
Concerto No 5 in Eb ‘Emperor’
Cécile Chaminade
Konzertstück Op 40
Cheryl Frances-Hoad
‘Between the Skies, the River and the Hills’ Piano Concerto (2018, written for Ivana)
Grieg
Concerto in A minor
Haydn
Concerto in D Hob XVIII/11
Janáček
Capriccio for LH
Concertino
Mendelssohn
Concerto No 1 in G minor
Concerto in A minor for piano and strings MWV O2
Concerto for Piano, Violin and Strings in D minor MWV 04
Mozart
Concerto K271 in Eb ‘Jeunehomme’
Concerto K 466 in D minor
Concerto K 488 in A
Dora Pejačević
Piano Concerto in G minor op 33
Prokofiev
Concerto No 1
Rachmaninov
Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
Concerto No 2 in C minor Op 18
Ravel
Concerto in G
Schumann
Concerto No 1 in A minor
Shostakovich
Concerto No 1 Op 35 (for piano, trumpet and strings)
Concerto No 2 Op 102
Turina
Rhapsodia sinfónica Op 66 (for piano and strings)

Recital

Grieg +

3 solo programmes that showcase just how great and far-reaching the influence of Grieg’s music was on fellow composers:

‘Grieg: the Chopin of the North’

‘Throwback to Dance’

‘Raw and Rustic’

For more details on these programmes or for alternative solo recital programmes please get in touch via the Contact page.

 

“I am fairly certain that Edvard Grieg’s influence was much more significant in non-Nordic countries than here in the north. The generation of French composers, which I am part of, was strongly attracted by Grieg’s music. Next to Debussy there’s no other composer, whom I feel more related to, than Grieg.” Maurice Ravel

 

 

Chamber Music

Violin and Piano

Bach Sonata in C minor BWV 1017 Bartók 6 Romanian Dances, arr. Székely Beethoven Sonatas No 4 in A minor No 5 in F ‘Spring’ No 7 in C minor No 10 in G Brahms Sonata No 2 in A Hungarian Dances, arr. Joachim (selection) Bloch Nigun Debussy Sonata Dvořák Sonatina in G Op 100 Elgar Sonata Op 82 De Falla Suite Populaire Espagnole Franck Sonata Grieg Sonata No 2 in G Sonata No 3 in C minor Janáček Sonata Mozart Sonata in Bb, K454 Sonata in G, K301 Sonata in E minor, K304 Schumann, Clara Three Romances for Violin and Piano Op. 22 Ravel Sonata Tzigane Massenet Meditation from ‘Thaïs’ Montsalvatge Spanish Sketch Schubert Fantasie in C, D934 Turina Sonata No 1 in D Op 51

Cello and Piano

Beethoven Sonata No 5 in D Glazunov Chant du Ménestrel Janáček Pohadka Martinů Variations on a Slovak Theme Stravinsky Suite Italienne

Clarinet and Piano

Bartók 6 Romanian Dances, arr. Székely Bax Sonata Bernstein Sonata Brahms Sonata in F minor Sonata in Eb Debussy Première Rhapsodie Hindemith Sonata Ireland Fantasy-Sonata Lobanov Sonata Op 45 Milhaud Sonatine Mozart Concerto in A major Nielsen Concerto Poulenc Sonata Salter, Tim Abstractions II for Bass Clarinet Schoeck Sonata for Bass Clarinet Schumann Fantasiestűcke Watkins, Huw Chorale I and II Weber Grand Duo Concertante

Oboe and Piano

Bozza Fantasy Pastorale Colin Solo de Concours Damase Rhapsodie Dring, Madeleine Italian Dance Dutilleux Sonata Finzi Interlude Handel Sonata in F Kabalevsky Piano pieces (arr) Kalliwoda Morceau de Salon Op 228 Poulenc Sonata Ravel Piano Sonatina (arr) Saint-Saëns Sonata

Ensemble

Beethoven Piano Trio Op 1 No 1 in Eb Piano Trio Op 1 No 3 in C minor Piano Trio Op 70 No 1 in D ‘Ghost’ Brahms Piano Trio for clarinet and cello Op 114 Piano Quartet in C minor, Op 60 Two songs for voice, viola and piano Op 91 Dvořák Piano Trio in E minor ‘Dumky’ Janáček Capriccio Concertino Mendelssohn Piano Trio in C minor Mozart Piano Trio for clarinet, viola and piano ‘Kegelstatt’ Piano Quartet in G minor, K 478 Piano Quartet in Eb, K 493 Schubert Piano Trio No 2 in Eb Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 Piano Quintet in G minor

Two Pianos

Milhaud Scaramouche Mozart Adagio and Fugue Rachmaninov Fantaisie-Tableaux Op 5 (First Suite) Suite No 2 Op 17

Videos


Haydn: Piano Concerto in D Major


Hoad: Between the Skies, the River and the Hills


A Tribute to Haydn


‘Chopin’ album trailer


Chopin: Mazurkas Op 17, 23 April 2017


Grieg: ‘Butterfly’ from Lyric Pieces Op 43 No 1


Janáček: Violin Sonata 1st Movt – with Thomas Gould


Janáček: Concertino – with Aurora Orchestra soloists

Gallery

Contact

General Management Worldwide

Sarah Bruce
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