An aural and visual feast from one of Australia’s great contemporary composers, Elena Kats-Chernin, and her long-time collaborator, internationally acclaimed pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska. Performing four hands at the piano and improvising live, second-to-second, the duo traverse the wonderful catalogue of Kats-Chernin’s music, shining light onto new treasures and old favourites, in a thrilling, unique experience of creation, expression and adventure.
As one of Australia’s foremost contemporary composers, widely acknowledged and awarded around the world, Elena Kats-Chernin has created works in nearly every genre, from orchestral compositions to chamber and choral, among them pieces for Michael Collins, Ensemble Modern, the Vienna Boys Choir, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Queensland, Tasmanian, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, as well as four chamber operas and soundtracks to three silent films.
Tamara-Anna Cislowska is one of Australia’s foremost pianists, winner of many awards both here and overseas including a 2012 APRA-AMCOS Art Music Award and the Rovere d’Oro, and whose recent recording of Peter Sculthorpe’s complete piano works has earned 5 star reviews in BBC Music Magazine, where it was ‘Recording of the Month- Instrumental’ (January 2015) and described as “Australian piano gold”, in Limelight magazine and Fine Music magazine.
This is a program that is sure to delight audiences already familiar with the composer’s oeuvre, as well as being an irresistible introduction to those who have yet to discover the unique beauty and scope of Elena Kats-Chernin’s compositions.
“Tamara and I like to play with material. We like to experiment. Perhaps there lies the essence of what we do together in our group and why this form of music comes so naturally to us. Being a composer since I was a very little girl, I have always improvised at the piano. I played the piano. I played WITH the piano. Every single day of my life. It is simply what I do. When I am not doing it, I think about when I will do it next. It is my best friend and my great love.
Tamara loves to play as well and so, since we met in 1995, we have often played together. It is only in the last few years that we have decided to perform in public (or rather, Tamara convinced me that we should!). We think alike and that makes it easy for us to fit together. Tamara has always had a great understanding of my music and so what could be very complicated becomes very easy. I don’t have to say in words how the music should be, and that is a great relief because notes are really my language, not words! What is so simply played or written in music is incredibly difficult to express in words.
In the works that we present, Tamara often plays what I would call the outline of my written score or sketches whilst leaving me plenty of room to elaborate or create further. The piece can take an entirely different turn by the end of the performance! It is this freshness and licence of creativity that excites me about these concerts, and many times a new piece has been born out of what happens on the stage.”
– Elena Kats-Chernin, 2014
One of Australia’s foremost contemporary composers, Elena Kats-Chernin’s vibrant and distinctive music across all genres has reached millions worldwide, featuring at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, 2003 Rugby World Cup and 2018 Commonwealth Games. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she has received numerous prizes including Helpmann, Limelight, Sounds Australian and Sydney Theatre Awards, the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award and the 2022 Australian Women in Music Award (AWMA) for ‘Artistic Excellence’. Oscar-winning director Adam Elliott’s full-length claymation film, “Memoir of a Snail”, with music by Kats-Chernin, won the top Cristal award for ‘Best Feature Film’ at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and opened the Melbourne International Film Festival in August the same year. ‘Eliza Aria’ from ballet Wild Swans (choreographer Meryl Tankard) was made famous by British bank Lloyds TSB, and her ‘Sarenka’ double concerto premiered by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was nominated for ‘Work of the Year’ in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards.
Kats-Chernin writes for ballet, opera, theatre, television and the concert hall, with her music performed by all major orchestras in Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Brandenburg Orchestra and Australian World Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin, City of London Sinfonia, BBC Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony and Luxembourg Philharmonie,as well as the opera houses of Antwerp, Stuttgart, and Berlin, and in festivals across the USA, Europe, and Australasia. She has collaborated with well-known artists such as Marin Alsop, Avi Avital, Michael Collins, Mahan Esfahani, Shobana Jeyasingh, Richard Tognetti, William Yang, Simone Young, and many more.
Elena Kats-Chernin’s music is is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes, and recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and ABC Classics.
