Four Hands at the Piano

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’.

Elena Kats-Chernin composed the music soundtrack to Oscar-winning director Adam Elliott’s multi-award-winning full-length claymation film “Memoir of a Snail”, which won the top Cristal award for ‘Best Feature Film’ at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, ‘Best film’ at the BFI London Film Festival, and was an official nomination in the 97th Academy Awards, the 82nd Annual Golden Globes, among many others. ‘Eliza Aria’ from ballet Wild Swans (choreographer Meryl Tankard) was made famous by British bank Lloyds TSB; Kats-Chernin’s ‘Sarenka’ double concerto premiered by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was nominated for ‘Work of the Year’ in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards, and Elena was the highest voted Australian composer in the ABC’s Classic100 countdowns in both 2024 and 2025, as well as the most popular female composer.

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 been a resident composer with Magdeburg and Bremerhaven theatres recently. She has collaborated with well-known artists such as Marin Alsop, Avi Avital, Michael Collins, Mahan Esfahani, Shobana Jeyasingh, Richard Tognetti, William Barton, Simone Young, and many more, with 2025 premieres in Australia, Luxembourg and Austria. Elena collaborated for the first time with William Yang on his 2012 Sydney Festival project, ‘I am a camera’, joining forces once more for the world premiere of ‘Milestone’ for Sydney Festival in 2025, AsiaTOPA, Brisbane and OzAsia Festivals. Elena Kats-Chernin’s music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes, and recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and ABC Classics, and more.

ARIA award-winning pianist, Tamara-Anna Cislowska is one of Australia’s most renowned, respected and celebrated classical pianists, performing and recording in Australia and internationally to critical and public acclaim. Earning international prizes in London, Italy and Greece and touring Japan and the USA as cultural ambassador for Australia, Tamara’s accolades include ABC Young Performer Award, the Freedman Fellowship, an Art Music Award for ‘Performance of the Year’ (ACT) and the 2015 ARIA award for ‘Best Classical Album’.

Tamara has performed recitals at London’s Purcell Room, the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and New York’s Frick Collection, and as soloist with the London Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and all major Australasian symphony orchestras. Recent highlights include touring with CIRCA for New York’s White Light Festival at the Lincoln Center, and the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Piano Concerto no.3, Lebewohl with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra – now available on her new album, Ancient Letters (ABC Classic), recorded with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra – concerto engagements with the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and as librettist and pianist for the sold-out Sydney Opera House world premiere of ‘Human Waves’, commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for its Centenary Celebrations, with music by Kats-Chernin, with the premiere of two new verses by River City Voices in 2025. In the current season, Tamara returns as soloist with the Tasmanian Symphony, with the Guizhou Chinese Orchestra, and tours nationally with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

With several million streams annually on Spotify alone and ten ARIA no.1 albums for ABC Classics, Deutsche Grammophon and Naxos, Tamara is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most globally recognised pianists in classical music today. Presenting for ABC Classic in her weekly program, ‘Duet’, Tamara continues to earn praise from audiences and critics alike, with her latest chart-topping album, of performances drawn from the show, nominated for ‘Best Classical Album’ in the 2022 ARIA Awards.