
Wotersen Castle, location of Janina's debut at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany
The festival summer started with the debut of Ottawa’s latest festival “Music and Beyond” which presented over 80 concerts in under two weeks featuring stars like Kathleen Battle, the Emerson String Quartet, Peter Serkin, Menahem Pressler and Janina. Janina played three concerts there with the festival’s creator, Julian Armour and his Chamber Players of Canada.
Premiere No.2: the highly successful new version of the two Chopin piano concertos accompaniments arranged by Dutch composer and arranger Sylvia Maessen for five strings and five wind instruments. Paired with two Mozart concertos they made two perfect festival evenings and were received with rapturous applause. Janina closed the festival with a rousing performance of the Schuman piano quintet at the final gala.
From there she traveled through Ontario’s cottage country to idyllic Parry Sound on Georgian Bay. The 31st “Festival of the Sound” was the occasion for premiere No. 3: a festival within the festival, Janina hosting a three day celebration of Chopin’s 200th birthday. Among the guests Janina and festival director James Campbell had invited were pianists Angela Cheng, André Laplante and 15 year old young talent Jan Lisiecki. A highlight was an multi-media evening with music, narration and screen projections. The new chamber arrangement of Chopin’s piano concertos with Janina as soloist ended the mini-festival.
Premiere No. 4: beloved former CBC radio host Eric Friesen’s new summer series ‘Tuesdays in studio “S” with Eric Friesen’. Janina’s all Chopin recital moderated by Eric drew the largest crowd of the summer season at the charming concert venue, the Thousand Island Playhouse in picturesque Gananoque. Where else in the world can you drink your intermission cocktail looking out on the perfect full moon reflected on the waters of the majestic St. Lawrence River?
Permiere No. 5 was a very special one, Janina’s debut at the ultra-prestigious Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany. The location of her recital, Wotersen Castle, is highly recognizable to the German public due to a popular TV series filmed there. The concert held in the vast riding hall was completely sold out and Janina had the unique experience of listening to the announcement of her re-engagement for next year’s festival spoken from the stage immediately after her performance and cheered loudly by her audience.