2nd Prize winner – Jose Iturbi International Music Competition - Piano, California, 2009
1st Prize winner – Gabala International Piano Competition, Azerbaijan 2009
One of the most distinguished Croatian pianists, whose interpretations were described as “…Powerful and subtle in exact degrees, with an infinite capability of frasing and poetical deepening in the most tremendous passages...“ (Pablo Cohan, La Nacion, Buenos Aires) or „...Brillant and refined...“ (Edith Eisler, New York concert review), was born in 1981 in Rijeka, where he obtained primary and secondary musical education at the School of music “Ivan Matetich Ronjgov”.
From 1997 to 2001 he studied piano (with Marina Ambokadze) and musicology at the Music Academy “Ino Mirkovich” in Lovran, under licence of Moskow state conservatory “P. I. Chaikovsky”.
His later trainigs include postgraduate studies at Hochschüle für Musik Köln (with Arbo Valdma, 2003 - 2004), Schola Cantorum in Paris (with Eugen Indjic, 2003 - 2006), Zagreb Music Academy (with Evgeny Zarafiants, 2006 - 2008). Presently, he is specializing at the Oxana Yablonskaya Piano Institute in Lugano.
His concert engagements led him to the Carnegie Hall in New York, National Concert Hall in Dublin, Salle Alfred Cortot in Paris, and numerous other concerts halls in Switzerland, France, Italy, Holland, Agrentina, Croatia, and other countries of former Yugoslavia.
Goran Filipec performed with several renown orchestras, such as: Moskow Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Ushuaia Philharmonic Orchestra, Rijeka Opera Symphony Orchestra, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Croatian Chamber Orchestra, under direction of Jorge Uliarte, Vjekoslav Sutej, Leonid Nikolaev, Pavle Despalj and other renown conductors.
His performances where recorded and broadcasted by Croatian National Television and Radio, Radio Suisse Romande and several Argentinian television and radio channels.
FROM REVIEWS
"...In this repertoire Filipec also demontrated that he is an authentic and brillant heir of that Easter European piano school which refers to Emil Gilels, Svjatoslav Richter and Lazar Berman. Powerful and subtle in exact degrees, with an infinite capability of frasing and poetical deepening in the most tremendous passages, almost ignoring interminable pianistic difficulties, Filipec dedicated himself to making music..."
Pablo Cohan, La Nación, Buenos Aires
"...The concert opened with Rachmaninoff's grandly conceived Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor Op. 36, composed in 1913 and revised in 1931, and the early Elegy Op. 3 No. 1. Only a virtuoso pianist who knew how to exploit all the resources of his instrument could have written the Sonata; it was a staple of Rachmaninoff's own repertoire. Goran Filipec, a brillant young pianist, played it to the hilt. The running passages and trills sparkled, the melodies sang, the great crashing chords filled the hall; he captured the drama, somberness and melancholy of the slow movement as well as of the Elegy..."
Edith Eisler, New York Concert Review
"… A pianist of the convincing interpretation and profiled artistic personality, of an, one could almost say, demonic concentration of energy, completly corresponding to the demands of the technical nature, which have been destined, in accordance with his own pianistic abilities, by the devilish Liszt in his legacy to the other pianists … His sovereignty was expressed in every segment of his performance, in the profileness of every single variation, in a deep, strong breath of every phrase, in the pianistic gesture, in the persuasiveness of the interpretation, in the impression of the whole performance…"
