Ladislav Fančovič (1980) is a Slovak solo and chamber music pianist and saxophonist who is today rightly considered a top representative of the European performing arts and among the most all-round musicians in Czechia and Slovakia.
After finishing his piano studies at the Bratislava Conservatoire, he continued in studying Piano at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (under prof. Marián Lapšanský), at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (under prof. Marián Lapšanský). His debut CD from 2006, with Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and virtuosic transcriptions of Horowitz and Cziffra as well, caught attention of the professional public with his limitless potential and a wide variety of musical expression. Ladislav Fančovič is today an established soloist and a chamber performer with a discography containing almost 40 titles.
As a renowned soloist with repertoire containing over 30 important piano concerts of 18th to 20th century, he plays concerts all around the world (USA, China, India, Malaysia, Oman, Turkey and Cyprus, Singapur etc.).
In 2014 he founded the Pressburg Saxophone Quartet (former name Saxophone Syncopators), whose repertoire consists of classical compositions (A. Glazunov, J.-B. Singeleé, E. Bozza, P.-M. Dubois, C. Pascal, J. Irshai) as well as the original transcriptions of the ragtime music from 1910 to 1920, when saxophone reborn as an inspiration for both – performers and composers. In r. In 2022, he completed his Master's degree in saxophone at Fontys University in the Netherlands under one of the greatest saxophone figures in classical music, composer and conductor Andreas van Zoelen. Fančovič is credited with releasing the first Slovak monographic CD dedicated to the saxophone work Nuclear Sax (2020), on which, in addition to his saxophone quartet, the Slovenian saxophonist Lev Pupis and the author of the music, Yevgeny Irshai, also performed. In r. 2020, the world premieres of Alexander Rahbari's compositions performed by L. Fančovič on saxophones were published by Naxos - Symphonic Poem No. 9 ‘Nohe Khan’ for solo baritone saxophone and orchestra and Symphonic Poem No. 10 'Morshed' for C melody saxophone, harp, marimba, vibraphone, percussion and vocals (CD My Mother Persia vol. 3).
Fančovič is also active and enthusiastic organizer of cultural and education life in Slovakia. Besides spreading awareness of classical music and old jazz in Slovakia he also established international festival of authentic early jazz music Golden Age Festival, multi-genre festival Hudba Modre and since 2017 organizes the only master classes in classical music on saxophone in Slovakia, Saxophobia Bratislava, which is visited annually by more than 50 students from 7 countries, and during which there will be several exceptional concerts for the public, including a concert of 60-member saxophone orchestra on Slovak Radio. He invites the biggest names in classical saxophone to teach and share their knowledge with students from whole Europe (Rachèr Saxophone Quartet, Oto Vrhovnik, Philippe Portejoie, Pawel Gusnar, Andreas van Zoelen, Christine Rall, Elliot Riley, Erzsebet Seleljo, Lev Pupis, Bence Szepesi, Barbara Strack-Hanish, Ryszard Zoledziewski, Markus Holzer, Alexander Stepanov, Kateřina Pavlíková, Oscar Trompenaars, Ryo Noda etc.). Since year 2025 is Ladislav Fančovič professor of classical saxophone at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava.
