4 HANDS,
1 PIANO
Sunshine Coast Premiere
Date & Time
Friday, 7 June
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Venue
Buderim War Memorial Hall
Kabi Kabi Country
Artists
Elena Kats-Chernin AO
Tamara-Anna Cislowska
Described by Limelight magazine as a “true dream team”, Elena Kats-Chernin – as one of Australia’s most internationally recognised contemporary composers – and ARIA award-winning pianist and ABC presenter Tamara-Anna Cislowska return with 4 Hands, 1 Piano.
Promising chart-topping favourites and new tunes from Kats-Chernin's prolific hand - inspired by family and fantasy, from Sydney to Paris, via the Silk Road - these two leading ladies of classical music are truly not to be missed.
With nearly 14 million streams on Spotify in 2023 alone, the duo have performed throughout Australia at major venues and arts festivals to high acclaim. Come and enjoy the sheer delight and energy of Kats-Chernin’s soul-stirring music, as well as the warm and spontaneous on-and-off-stage rapport (and cheeky humour) of these two leading women of the Australian arts scene.
Repertoire
Dance of the Paper Umbrellas
Sunshine Tango
Human Waves (excerpts)
Butterflying
Sandgate Sonata (first movement)
Trade (from Ancient Letters)
Unsent Love Letters
Marcato
Eliza Aria
Re-Inventions (first movement)
Scherzino
Elena Kats-Chernin AO
As 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 for ‘Artistic Excellence’.
Kats-Chernin has written for ballet, opera and theatre, and is performed by all major orchestras in Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Brandenburg Orchestra and Australian World Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Komische Oper Berlin, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, City of London Sinfonia, BBC Orchestra, and in festivals across the USA, Europe, and throughout Australia. She has collaborated with well-known artists such as Shobana Jeyasingh, Didy Veldman, Mahan Esfahani, Avi Avital, Richard Tognetti, Michael Collins, Axel Ranisch, Igor Bauersima, Tamara-Anna Cislowska, Simone Young, Marin Alsop, David Porcelijn, and many more.
2023 heralds notable world premieres of Kats-Chernin’s first violin concerto, commissioned for violinist Emily Sun by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; a double concerto for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, ‘KAIROS’ featuring dancers and Kats-Chernin performing live at the piano, presented by FORM Dance Project for Sydney Festival, choreographed by Meryl Tankard with visuals by Regis Lansac; and opera premieres in Zurich, and for Komische Oper Berlin. ‘Human Waves’, commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, with libretto by Tamara-Anna Cislowska, also receives its world premiere in the Sydney Opera House this year. Kats-Chernin’s music also features in 3MBS’ radiothon ‘Celebrating Elena Kats-Chernin AO’ with five live broadcast concerts performed with musical colleagues, and in the Sydney Opera House’ Inside/Out at the House, 50th birthday celebratory concert performed to an audience of thousands by Sydney Symphony Orchestra and guests.
Photo Credit: Vicki Lauren
Tamara-Anna Cislowska
Tamara-Anna Cislowska is one of Australia’s most renowned, ARIA award-winning pianists, performing and recording in Australia and internationally to critical and public acclaim. Earning international prizes in London, Italy and Greece such as the Rovere d’Oro, and touring Japan and the USA as cultural ambassador for Australia, Tamara’s accolades include ABC Young Performer of the Year, the Freedman Fellowship, an Art Music Award for ‘Performance of the Year’ (ACT) and the 2015 ARIA award for 'Best Classical Album'.
Frequent guest of orchestras and festivals worldwide, Tamara has performed as soloist with the London Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, and all major Australasian symphony orchestras with conductors such as Matthias Bamert, Edo de Waart, Asher Fisch, Johannes Fritzsch, Karina Canellakis and Alondra de la Parra. Recent engagements include concerti by Gorecki, Liszt, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich and Elena Kats-Chernin’s Piano Concerto no.3, Lebewohl, commissioned for Cislowska and included in the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Vision 20/20 series, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. Tamara also performed the world premiere of Human Waves with music by Elena Kats-Chernin and libretto by Cislowska, commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for its Centenary Celebrations. She has toured to the USA with CIRCA’s En Masse for Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and given solo and chamber recitals around the world including for New York’s Frick Collection, London’s Purcell Room, Sydney Opera House, Perth International Arts Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Canberra International Music Festival. Tamara was a featured artist on the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s tour and recording of Mountain – A Cinematic and Musical Odyssey, including Sydney Film Festival and the Barbican (UK).
2023 engagements include as soloist with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performing the premiere of Kats-Chernin’s Ancient Letters concerto on piano, Bleach Festival (Gold Coast) with soprano Tarita Botsman, two piano concerts at Sydney’s City Recital Hall and Melbourne Recital Centre with Gerard Willems and a return to the ‘Out West Piano Fest’ (NSW), Australian Digital Concert Hall’s 88 Keys piano festival, and solo recitals for Musica Viva Tasmania, and more. Other most recent engagements include performances for Sydney Festival, Australian Chamber Orchestra, UKARIA Cultural Centre, the Art Gallery of NSW, Four Winds Festival, Musica Viva Australia, Newcastle, and Gippsland Fine Music Festivals, and the inaugural Out West Piano Fest (NSW).
With over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and ten ARIA no.1 albums including One Summer’s Day: Studio Ghibli favourites for solo piano by Joe Hisaishi (ABC Classics), Into Silence recorded with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Unsent Love Letters: meditations on Erik Satie, available on Deutsche Grammophon outside Australia, Tamara also presents weekly program ‘Duet’ for ABC Classic FM, with 'DUET - Tamara-Anna Cislowska and guests' her latest chart- topping release for ABC – with volume two nominated for ‘Best Classical Album’ in the 2022 ARIA Awards.