PETRA HOLLAENDER-POGÁDY is among the most promising pianists of her generation, acclaimed for her “enviable virtuosity” and “exhilarating stage presence”.
She has performed in most European countries, the USA and China. Born in Bratislava, she developed an interest in music at a very early age and began playing the piano at the age of 5 at the Central Music School in her hometown. Two years later she she moved with her family to Austria and began her studies at the talent children course at the private Anton Bruckner University in Linz in the class of Gottfried Hemetsberger.
Shee won the national competition “Prima La Musica”, gave her first solo recital at the age of 14, appeared on Slovak National Television in a program for young artists and received the prestigious Bösendorfer scholarship for the youngest participant. She got her master’s degree in piano after graduating from Anton Bruckner (Linz) under Gottfried Hemetzberger, the University of Music and Performance Vienna in the class of Stefan Vladar and the National Conservatory of Music and Paris under Georges Pludermacher.
She has participated in numerous master classes – under Rudolf Buchbinder (Vienna), Andrzej Jasinski (Poland), Jerome Rose (USA), Pnina Salzman (Tel Aviv) and Nina Lelchuk (Moscow), as well as at festivals such as the Tel – Hai International Piano Master classes in Israel and the International Keyboard Festival – New York. She won the Pnina Saltzman Award and took part in documentary about this legendary pianist with a performance of the Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2.
Firmly convinced that music should be accessible to everyone, Petra Pogady joins the “Yehudi Menuhin Live Music NOW!” foundation dedicated to presenting music in orphanages and homes for the elderly, prisons and hospitals. She is performed more than 80 recitals for Live Music Now.
In 2017, she made her debut with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra with Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 2. In 2018 she presented a CD of piano works by Eugèn Suchon.