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’. With millions of streams on Spotify alone, Tamara is also celebrated as a regular presenter on ABC Classic FM including her weekly show, Duet; as curator and music director, librettist, and now, composer.
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 wrote the libretto for Human Waves with music by Elena Kats-Chernin, commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for its Centenary Celebrations and performed at the piano in its world premiere. 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 at the Barbican (UK). Highly sought-after for chamber collaborations, Tamara co-founded the Mozart Piano Quartet which toured Europe and North America and won numerous Echo awards in Germany, and has performed alongside world-renowned artists such as Dawn Upshaw, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sharon Bezaly and the Danish String Quartet.
2023 engagements included as soloist with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performing the premiere of Kats-Chernin’s Ancient Letters concerto on piano, and as pianist in 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 and libretto by Cislowska, celebrating with empathy and humour, the waves of human migration that have shaped the harbour city. Tamara co-curated and performed with soprano Tarita Botsman at Bleach Festival (Gold Coast), 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 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 Canberra International Music Festival.
In 2024, Tamara makes a long-awaited return to Canberra International Music Festival, as soloist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dmitri Matvienko, and a recording of Kats-Chernin concertos with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Fritzsch. She performs as soloist with the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra, at the Concourse (Sydney) with soprano Tarita Botsman, and in concerts with Elena Kats-Chernin, including at Blackheath Chamber Music Festival (NSW).
With millions of streams 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’ (volumes I and II) her latest chart-topping releases for ABC, nominated for ‘Best Classical Album’ in the 2022 ARIA Awards.
Tamara-Anna Cislowska also enjoys the special distinction of having a new, premium varietal of Australian strawberry named in her honour in 2021 by the Australian Strawberry Breeding Program.
Photography: Tyler Alberti Photography
Latest News
November 2021, Tamara releases DUET (ABC Classics) with 22 acclaimed and ARIA-winning guest artists who perform a duet performance, broadcast live on air, with Tamara. The album reached top ten in both ARIA’s Classical and Classical/Crossover charts. Read more here
Tamara’s 2014 CD, Peter Sculthorpe: Complete Works for Solo Piano (ABC Classics), enjoys weeks at no.1 on the ARIA Classical Charts, and 5 star reviews in BBC Music Magazine where it is ‘Recording of the Month – Instrumental’, in Limelight magazine where it is ‘Editor’s Choice’ and in Fine Music Magazine.
