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Internationally acclaimed pianist and Steinway Artist Eva Virsik has appeared to great success as a
recitalist and orchestra soloist throughout Europe and the United States. Fanfare magazine described her
as a "...imaginative, charming, and cultured musician and an instrumentalist of formidable skills," and
Music Life magazine praised her "brilliance and poetry." In Europe, she performed in major cities
throughout Germany, France, Austria, Russia, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. She enjoyed
great success appearing with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lille, and
with several major orchestras in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In the United States, she has toured
along the East Coast, including Portland, Boston, Washington, D.C. and New York City, where she
debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2008.
Some highlights of the recent seasons include performances with orchestras in the United States and Europe,
including return engagements such as with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, where her performance of
Liszt's Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Tunes prompted renowned film music composer William Perry to select her
for the performance of his Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra “The Beloved Rogue”. She was heard with
the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and conductor Toshiyuki Shimada in Chopin's Concerto No. 2, and
in 2016 returned there for a performance of Mozart's Concerto No. 19. Touring Europe, she dazzled
audiences as a soloist with the Slovak Sinfonietta and conductor Oliver von Dohnányi, in recitals at
the Mozarthaus in Vienna and in the historic series at the Mirbach Palace in Bratislava, she was heard in several
appearances as featured artist at the 2014 Robert Schumann Festival in Elmira, New York, where direct descendants
of Robert Schumann's family attended her performances. She also returned to New York City in 2016, with a recital at
the Steinway Hall, and during a trip to Asia in November 2017, she played a recital in Ankara, Turkey, where the
Embassy of Hungary provided their venue and an authentic piano formerly used by composer Bela Bartok.
Eva Virsik's latest album Piano Encores recieved a rave review from the Washington Post critic Patrick
Rucker in the classical magazine Fanfare. In 2010, 2012, and 2014, at events of the United Nations in
New York, Eva Virsik performed for two consecutive presidents of Slovakia, her former homeland. She is
also a frequent guest on radio and television networks including contributions to their permanent archives.
She was heard on SWR radio in Germany, the Czech radio, and RTVS, the largest network in Slovakia.
She performed live on WGBH radio in Boston on “Morning Pro Musica” as the featured guest of host
Robert J. Lurtsema, and her live orchestra performances were aired on the Maine Public Broadcasting,
Connecticut Broadcasting networks, and televised via PBS. She has captivated audiences also at international
festivals such as the "Russian Winter," during a tour which brought her north of the Arctic Circle, the Festival of
Contemporary Music "Berolina Concerts" in Germany, the Bratislava Music Festival "BHS" in Slovakia, the summer
festival in Karlsbad, Czech Republic, and the Arkady Music Festival in Maine, USA, amongst others. She also
collaborated with chamber groups such as the Portland String Quartet, DaPonte String Quartet, and Maine Chamber
Ensemble among other.
A native of Bratislava, Slovakia, Eva Virsik appeared on Slovak Television at the age of four, and at age
six she won her first competition. When she was eight, she played her first recital in Bratislava. At a young
age, Eva Virsik won five first prizes in competitions. At fifteen, upon winning the Smetana competition, she
played her orchestral debut with the West Czech Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Libor Pešek, and
was featured at the Rudolfinum Hall in Prague and the Reduta Hall in Bratislava. She has also received a
silver medal as a laureate of the Maria Callas Piano Competition in Athens, and holds a special Prize of
the Czech Music Critics. She studied at Moscow State Conservatory with Yakov Zak and Stanislav
Neuhaus, and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. For many years she has devoted herself also to
music pedagogy and has served on faculties at several universities including Frankfurt, Freiburg,
Bratislava, New Haven, and Bowdoin College. She also appeared in recitals at many major music
institutions throughout the world, including Yale University, and held master classes in Europe and the
USA.
FROM CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"...seated at the Steinway for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19, Eva Virsik...a native of Slovakia
who trained in Moscow, she crafted even the running waves of arpeggios that wash through the
outer movements with a sense of cantabile lyricism, a songlike, easy flow reflecting the axiom
that Russians teach pianists to touch the keys, not strike them...Virsik emerged from the
development with a gentle lyricism in the theme’s recapitulation...In the final movement, Virsik
dashed from the stretto episodes with quick and energetic passagework and scales the length
of the keyboard that were wonderfully textured to be exciting and rhythmically forceful without
pointless bombast...The ovation for Virsik was long and warm after this winning performance."
The Day, USA (2016)
"Her gift for 19th Century music Virsik proved in Papillons Op. 2 by Robert Schumann...Working with the pedal,
concentrating on the relationship between the voicing of piano texture, syncopated rhythm, and phrasing, she offered
a well-knit fantasy image with internal contrasts...Liszt's arrangement of Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde by Richard
Wagner, she delivered with impressive passion."
--Musical Life, Slovakia (2013)
"...the Chopin piano concerto and its romantic waterfall of notes, played by pianist Eva Virsik with delicate grace...Her
bravura, understated performance brought the crowd to its feet...as the standing ovation continued for several
minutes."
--The Day, USA
"…If her Ravel is colorful and sophisticated, her Rachmaninov playing, exquisitely balanced, restrained, yet never less
than poetic, is even more impressive…"
--Fanfare Magazine, USA
"...intense emotional submerge, refined details, one of a kind creative atmosphere marked by technical confidence and
ease, brilliance and poetry..."
--Music Life’ Magazine, Slovakia
"...magical sound of piano...an overwhelming impression."
--Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Germany
"...As for the Beethoven Concerto No. 1, played by Eva Virsik...things picked up, and this sprightly performance was
rewarded by standing ovation. Virsik's playing has a crystalline character that lent itself to this interpretation."
--Portland Press Herald, USA
"Once again she showed how flawlessly she can depict the haunting poignancy with her delicate touch…The piece
held the audience spellbound with its rippling imagery."
--Journal Tribune, USA
"in Schumann’s ‘Kreisleriana’…she demonstrated extraordinary degree of control, imagination and immense manual
power…Yet it was in the supremely difficult ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’ by Maurice Ravel, where she was able to show her
true virtuosity…in spite of the innate difficulty of the work, Virsik was in her element, with alternating phrases of
sparkling clarity interspersed with typical Ravel glazed, underwater-water-like passages. It was truly a superb piece of
artistry."
--Maine Times, USA
