The artist's life
Sanja then began to work on the first collection of the Etudes-Tableaux. Her early successes were followed by a string of trophies won at international competitions for young musicians, including Bucharest, Kosice, Prague and, most notably, in 2003, Second Prize at the Vladimir Horowitz Competition, Kiev. In 2004, she completed her studies in Paris and gained First Prize, awarded unanimously by the jury, for piano and chamber music in Itamar Golan’s class. She then went on to study with Alexander Satz in Graz, Austria, (the distinguished teacher of Boris Berezovsky, among others) to whom she pays tribute for his open mind and his way of never dissociating technique from musicality. At the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, she continued her development with Elisso Virsaladze, while also participating in masterclasses given by Ferenc Rados, Dmitri Alexeev, Oleg Maisenberg, Menahem Pressler and Andrea Lucchesini. Sanja Bisjak’s career has continued to grow; in 2010 she won the Gradignan Grand Piano Competition and was also victorious at the Cuitat de Carlet International Competition in Spain. As a Natexis Foundation prizewinner, since 2005 she has appeared in numerous concerts with orchestras (such as the Essen and Belgrade Philharmonias, Warsaw Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia, Orchestres du Capitole of Toulouse and of Avignon, Ukraine Symphony Orchestra…), and as a soloist throughout Europe (Louvre Auditorium in 2006, and many festivals including the BBC Proms, La Roque d’Anthéron, La Folle Journée in Nantes and Japan, Musée d’Orsay, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, ‘Lisztomania’ in Châteauroux…).
