PAUL LANFEAR, Piano Journal, England

The Austrian pianist Susanna Artzt was born in Croatia and comes from a multicultural family: her father is an Indian and her mother is of southern Slav-Hungarian-Breton origin. Susanna Artzt showed an especially musical talent since her earliest childhood.

At the age of 15 she was „Croatia's youngest student“ when she was accepted with the greatest number of points in the class of Vladimir Krpan at the Zagreb Music Academy.

At 16 she was discovered by Paul Badura-Skoda, who described her as an „exceptional piano talent“ and immediately invited her to attend his class in Vienna at the University of Music. She completed her piano studies there as a Magistra artium with Michael Krist and achieved perfection during her post-graduate studies with Peter Efler. She also worked together with Jacob Lateiner, Murray Perahia, Rudolf Kehrer and Evgenij Timakin in the course of many master classes. During her study period Susanna Artzt was several times a prize winner in international piano competitions.

Both of her CDs have brought her high critical acclaim internationally and Piano News in Germany named her debut CD „CD of the months“.

Recitals followed at the Vienna Musikverein, at the „KlangBogen Wien“ festival, at the „Biennale Zagreb - World Music Days“, the „Heidelberger Frühling“ festival, the „International Chopin Festival in Gaming“, the „Contemporary Music Week“ in Bucharest, live concerts with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne and at the International Schönberg Centre in Vienna, numerous piano concertos with orchestras, and radio- and television recordings for the ORF, WDR, RAI and HRT, among others.

The highpoint of her career to date is undoubtedly the concert with Zubin Mehta, which took place on invitation of the maestro in Munich in February 2006, and in which she celebrated a sensational success with the Second Piano Concerto by Saint -Saens. In October 2006 she played for the first time in New York, where she gave the first american performance of the Two Waltz-Impromptus op. 9 by Franz Schreker.

While her lively solo concert activities are at the core of her artistic life, Susanna Artzt also undertakes chamber-music encounters with popular partners, such as the cellist Othmar Müller (Artis Quartett) or Tamás Varga, the principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. With her husband, the pianist Manfred Wagner-Artzt, she performs since 1998 successfully as the „Arsio Piano Duo“.

Susanna Artzt's wide-ranging repertoire includes works trom the Baroque to the contemporary modern, whereby she gives special attention to Mozart. Schubert and Chopin as well as the French and Russian modernist fore-runners.