“Her piano playing bears the mark of three great pianists who formed her and of whom she managed to create an improbable synthesis : The panache of Martha Argerich, the musicality of Leon Fleisher and the impeccable finish of Krystian Zimerman.” Diapason, August 2005 “Mastery, intelligence, sensibility to sound : everything is there for us to hang at her fingertips... Excellent pianist, but above all, a musician !” Classica-Repertoire, July 2005 “Indisputably, Edna Stern is a great artist !” Alain Lompech, Diapason February 2007 Edna Stern has recorded 3 solo albums with the label Harmonia Mundi/ZigZag Territories. Her first CD entitled Chaconne was an immense success among the public and was highly praised by the critics throughout Europe. (Awarded a Diapason Découverte, Arte Best CD 2005) Her Schumann CD was awarded 5 of Diapason, which declares : “[Schumann’s Fantasy op. 17] is heard petrified by emotion. The pianist gives us here a rendering equal in inspiration with the greatest.” Her latest recording, featuring Preludes and Fugues by Bach has just been released and won a Diapason d’Or for March 2009. Edna Stern began her musical education at the age of six, studying first in Europe and subsequently in Israel with Viktor Derevianko of the Rubin Academy of Tel Aviv. She then returned to Europe to study at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth. Having regularly worked with Martha Argerich in Brussels, in 1996 she settled in Basel, perfecting herself during four years with Krystian Zimerman and later following master classes in Lake Como at the reputed International Piano Foundation with Alicia de Larrocha, Dmitri Bashkirov, Andreas Staier, and above all Leon Fleisher, whom she followed to the Peabody Institute in Baltimore for a year. In 2003, Edna Stern settled in Paris where she discovered the fortepiano, an instrument which has transformed her approach to music. Edna Stern has been invited to play recitals and chamber music at the Festivals la Roque d'Anthéron, Colmar, MDR, Ludiwigsburg Festsspiele, Piano Jacobin, Bach Festival at Leipzig, Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon, Auditorium of Saragossa, Freiburg philharmonie, Radio Bremen, at the Theater of Châtelet or at the Palais des Beaux. She has also appeared, both with an orchestra and in solo recitals, at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and at the Tonhalle of Zürich. Her performances have been broadcast on the Belgian radio Musique3, SüdWest Rundfunk, Bayerische Rundfunk, DRS 2, France Musique as well as Radio Classique. She has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras such as the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Cannes, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Flanders Philharmonic, Iena’s Philharmonic, RTL Philharmonic, the Polish Radio Philharmonic, the Beethoven Academy, The Basel Symphonic Orchestra, the Budapest Chamber Orchestra and the Polish Radio Orchestra. In season 2010 she will release two solo recordings, a Chopin recital with the label Naive, as well as Mozart concertos with the Orchestre d’Auvergne and Arie van Beek with the label Harmonia Mundi/ZigZag Territories. Edna Stern is teaching at the Royal College of London since September 2009. Press "To summarise, here is a great disc from a great pianist, impressive in her mastery and musicality from beginning to end. We want more!" Richard Holding, ResMusica.com, 26 February 2007 "[Schumann’s Fantasy op. 17] is heard petrified by emotion. The pianist gives us here a rendering equal in inspiration with the greatest... Indisputably, Edna Stern is a great artist!" Alain Lompech, Diapason, February 2007 "Edna Stern gives us an inspired interpretation... She moves with ease and fluidity throughout Schumann’s scores and finds an exemplary balance between the planned structure and spontaneity. And what poetry in her atmospheres!" Jérémie Szpirglas, Le Monde de la Musique, March 2007 "There is precision but without it being indifferent, but on the contrary with a palette of colours. Conjugating poetry and splendid sonority, Edna Stern gives us the pleasure of efficient virtuosity without any hardness (...) She is guiding us through an unreal world of contrasting emotions that we would never like to leave. Mastership, intelligence , sonority: all is there... Excellent pianist, but essentially a musician, Edna Stern has utterly conquered us, and we are waiting expectantly to hear her again." Antoine Mignon, Classica-Répertoire, July-August 2005 "...her fantasy, panache and enthousiasm light up the romantic lyricims and gothic passion Busoni's score overflows with... In the rigorous arrangement of Brahms, the pianist avoids all dryness thanks to her polyphonic approach and the depth of her playing." Jérôme Bastianelli, Diapason, July-August 2005 "Edna Stern translates remarquably [the mutation from violin to the great piano of the XIXth century] by the use of the pedal which renders this sensitive voyage of sounds amd melts the melodic methamorphosis into a mirific halo.Her work on sound is just as eloquent, like her crystalline sound preceding the ultimate and surreal radiance." Pierre Gervasoni, Le Monde, 24 May 2005 "If musical taste, phrasing that have organic respiration and poetic sonority are still important in the market of pianists, Edna Stern, is certainly part of the great hopes of a the young pianist's generation." Rüdiger Schwarz, Abend Zeitung, 2002 "It is the melodious sonority and gentleness that interests Edna Stern. For her the piano is like an aeolian harp that incites to a dream." Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2002 "Edna Stern displays astonishing authority, endowed with formidable energy, she offers a clearly detailed and solidly constructed playing." Martine Dumont-Mergey, La libre Belgique, 1998