TAMARA-ANNA CISLOWSKA - PIANO

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'. Performing as soloist with leading orchestras around Australian and overseas, as Music Director for special projects, radio presenter on ABC Classic, librettist and composer, Cislowska collaborates with leading arts companies such as the ACO and CIRCA, and artists as varied as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lang Lang, Robert Murray and Dawn Upshaw.

View the full biography here.

 

Upcoming concerts in 2025:

NEWS:

Live Review with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra: “exuberance and virtuosity. … a rhapsodic explosion both at the piano and throughout the orchestra. … [Cislowska] fearlessly worked to tame the dense extended piano solo with its crashing chords, gentle melodies and rousing flourishes.” [4.5 stars]
- ArtsHub, August 2024 (Pejacevich Phantasie Concertante, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra/Dmitri Matvienko). Listen again on ABC Classic here.

Recent highlights include the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Ancient Letters concerto in its new version for piano, with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; performing Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto no.1 with the Bendigo Symphony to an audience of over 800 at the Ulumbarra Theatre; standing ovations at the 2024 Blackheath Chamber Music Festival; and the 2023 sold-out Sydney Opera House world premiere of ‘HUMAN WAVES’ commissioned for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Centenary Celebrations, telling stories of migration to Australia through music by Elena Kats-Chernin AO and words/libretto by Tamara-Anna Cislowska. Read about it here in Limelight magazine.

DUET: Tamara-anna Cislowska & guests (ABC classics)
+ 2022 ARIA Nomination for ‘Best classical album’

Each week on ABC Classic’s Duet program, award-winning Australian concert pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska welcomes a star into the studio to share an hour of music and conversation at the keyboard. In her second edition due to popular demand, and also reaching no.1 on the ARIA Classical Charts, volume 2 captures 24 duets with guests such as Ben Folds, Garrick Ohlsson, and William Barton. “Duet Vol.2 is an album rich in variation and élan… imbued with adventure as a succession of fine musicians sit down and ‘knock off a tune’ for the sheer joy of it.” - read the full Music Trust review here. More on the album here, and buy, stream and download the album here.

‘ONE Summer’s Day’ (ABC Classics)

From ARIA Award-winning pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska comes this exquisite album of music by Joe Hisaishi, whose enchanting scores have graced so many beloved Studio Ghibli films. Reaching no.1 on the ARIA Classical charts, Hisaishi’s lovingly detailed musical depictions of fantasy worlds, bursting with imagination, are expressed here by the incomparable Cislowska, in the composer’s own arrangements for solo piano. Read more about this here (Media Release) and buy, download or stream the album here.

ONLINE:

Catch up on thoughtful and revealing interviews on ABC Classic’s DUET webpage, Facebook and Youtube when Tamara snags a star to share an hour of music and conversation at the piano, with guests such as Cate Blanchett, Audra McDonald, Lang Lang, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Stephen Hough, and more. Tune in to DUET on ABC Classic FM, on Sundays at 7pm (AEST).

Watch Tamara discuss some of Beethoven’s best beginnings in his piano works, for ABC’s Classic 100 Beethoven. And in the artist’s own words: Inside the Musician: Tamara-Anna Cislowska - Music in Australia feature article.

Pelēcis Concertino bianco - I. Con Intenerimento From the album 'Into Silence' available here: https://abcmusic.lnk.to/IntoSilence Tamara-Anna Cislowska - piano Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Johannes Fritzsch - conductor

unsent love letters Music by Elena Kats-Chernin Performed by Tamara-Anna Cislowska When Erik Satie died, friends found dozens of unsent love letters in his Paris apartment. Watch as Tamara-Anna Cislowska sends them off, in beautiful piano miniatures by Elena Kats-Chernin. Hear the album: https://abcmusic.lnk.to/BXp8fYT

Reviews

Tamara‘s performances of Prokofiev’s piano concerto no.2 with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra:

  • “What a treat to be able to hear such a fantastic, sensitive and agile pianist navigate Prokofiev’s intense and lengthy cadenzas... Cislowska’s playing was impeccable. She was in turns immensely powerful and charmingly vulnerable, channelling the young Prokofiev as the pianist battles with pressures and forces internal and external… thunderous applause” – The Age (full review)

  • “a thrill to hear [Cislowska] performing the technically demanding [concerto]… wonderful control and contrast in her playing style – one moment delicate and sublime then suddenly heavy, solid and demanding and in powerful control of her keyboard.” – Canberra CityNews

ACO Mountain reviews: “Tamara-Anna Cislowska’s piano solos are also impeccable – ravishing in the Chopin and Beethoven and crystalline in Pärt’s bell-like Für Alina.” – Limelight magazine (album review, 4.5 stars)

“Broad aerial shots of mountainscapes become a visual accompaniment to the Larghetto from Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major or the hymn-like Adagio from Beethoven’s Emperor concerto, beautifully rendered by pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska.” – Limelight magazine

Unsent Love Letters reviews: "Their latest project... is equally outstanding... Cislowska brings the Kats-Chernin/Satie amalgam to life with the same brilliance... Unsent Love Letters is a triumph for Kats-Chernin and Cislowska, and a great tribute to the tender and exquisite music of Erik Satie." (Readings Monthly, 'Classical Album of the Month', March 2017)

"If Elena Kats-Chernin had married Erik Alfred Leslie Satie, their musical children would have sounded like the 26 little piano pieces on this beguiling album... Deceptively simple and unadorned, they trickle off the nimble fingers of Tamara-Anna Cislowska... This is the kind of music that could exist at various levels ... all the way to late-night cabaret acts in Spiegeltents, best accompanied by exotic libations... it is hard to argue with its sincerity, wit and charm." (The Australian, April 2017)

Butterflying album reviews: “a true dream team... a dazzling collection.. lushly recorded and extremely accessible… Fasten your seatbelts and hold on.” (Limelight Editor's Choice, August 2016); “Detailed clarity and vibrant energy makes every note a winner. Cislowska’s robust delivery of Schubert Blues, drawing on Schubert’s Death and The Maiden, encompasses the piano’s full expressive range" (Courier Mail, 5 stars); “Whatever Tamara-Anna Cislowska does rewards attention and listening time… Many of the pieces here are most emotively taken by Cislowska… This is chimingly liquid and memorably melodic music.” (Musicweb International).

5 star reviews of Peter Sculthorpe: Complete Works for Solo Piano in BBC Music Magazine, 'Recording of the Month' and described as "Australian piano gold" and in GRAMOPHONE: "Cislowska's great gift is to pick up on the saudade inherent in this distinctive, finely-crafted, lyrical music, and project it outwards in an utterly natural, unforced manner. A profoundly affecting release" (January 2015)

 

SHOP

Purchase some of Tamara's chart-topping recordings from the shop

CONCERTS

Selected upcoming concerts and past performances

REVIEWS

"Cislowska’s intelligent, unerring musicianship and strong hand.. make this project an Australian treasure." news.com.au