One of the most prominent pianists in recent years, Martina Filjak, who won the first prize in the 2009 Cleveland International Piano Competition, will perform the last recital of the year as part of the Istanbul Recitals on the night of Dec. 12 at Sakıp Sabancı Museum's Seed hall.

Martina Filjak was awarded the 2007 Concorso Busoni's fifth prize, and subsequently won the 2007 Viotti and 2008 Maria Canals competitions. Having more than 30 piano concertos in her repertoire, the pianist has shared the stage with various famous orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (Symphony Orchestra of Milan Giuseppe Verdi), Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Osaka Century Symphony Orchestra and Israel Chamber Orchestra. Filjak, who has performed in important halls like Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Sala Verdi in Milano, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Konzerthaus in Vienne, and NDR Hall in Hannover, will appear in Istanbul with a very special repertoire this time.

She will finish her recital with the work titled "Grande paraphrase de la Marche pour le Sultan Abdul-Medjid Khan" (Great Paraphrase of the March for Sultan Abdulmecid Han), written by Franz Litsz on The March of Abdulmecid (also known as Mecidiye March), which was composed by Giuseppe Donizetti and was used as the imperial march of the Ottoman Empire for 22 years.