Photo credit: Daniel Boud
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.
COMING SOON: NEW Album out 22.08.25
Elena Kats-Chernin: ANCIENT LETTERS (ABC CLassic)
Tamara-Anna Cislowska’s brand new album of music by Elena Kats-Chernin AO is set for release on ABC Music on August 22, 2025!
ABC Classic is thrilled to present the world premiere recordings of two concertos by Elena Kats-Chernin: Ancient Letters, inspired by 1700-year-old letters from the Silk Road, and her third piano concerto, Lebewohl, written expressly for acclaimed Australian pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska, who brings these passionate and profoundly moving works to life with her unique combination of dazzling virtuosity and poetic sensitivity.
Kats-Chernin and Cislowska have worked together closely on many music projects over the past three decades, with a rare level of mutual understanding; past albums include Butterflying (2016) and Unsent Love Letters (2017), both spending weeks at the top of the ARIA Classical charts. For this project, Kats-Chernin has once again written works specifically with Cislowska’s artistic genius and inimitable sound in mind, supported by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. More info in the Media Release.
Just released: the first movement of Ancient Letters, ‘Tiger Cub’ - out now. An epic and sweeping work, recorded with Tamara as soloist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Fritzsch, reprising their successful collaboration on ‘Into Silence’.
Upcoming concerts in 2025:
Following 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 (featured in Limelight magazine), River City Voices presents the work with the world premiere of two new verses written by Tamara and Elena, performed with the creators on two pianos.
Saturday 6 September, 7:30pm at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta (Sydney) - don’t miss this incredible work celebrating our shared humanity.
DUET: Tamara-anna Cislowska & guests (on ABC classic FM, and ABC Classic)
Tune in to thoughtful and revealing interviews by Tamara and her star guests, on her celebrated weekly show on ABC Classic and Radio National, DUET.
Each week, 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, with guests such as Cate Blanchett, Audra McDonald, Lang Lang, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Stephen Hough, and more. Tune in on Sundays at 12pm (AEST) or listen anytime here. Enjoy the brilliant performances by Tamara and her DUET guests on her albums, Duet with Tamara-Anna Cislowska & friends, Volumes 1 & 2. With the first album earning a 2022 ARIA Nomination for ‘Best Classical Album, the second edition also reached no.1 on the ARIA Classical Charts, featuring 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.
more ONLINE:
Watch Tamara discuss some of Beethoven’s best beginnings in his piano works, for ABC’s Classic 100 Beethoven. And in her own words: Inside the Musician: Tamara-Anna Cislowska - Music in Australia feature.
Reviews
“Tamara-Anna Cislowska’s revealing and expressive playing … The charmingly abrupt tempo and mood changes, along with the score’s Handel and Chopin references, are adroitly handled by both pianist and conductor” [4 STARS]
– Limelight, 2025 (Poulenc Concert Champêtre, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, cond. Emila Hoving]
“Internationally acclaimed pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska opened the concert with the Yellow River Piano Concerto. Dressed in a shimmering scarlet gown, her breathtaking delivery of the technically challenging piano passages was matched by conductor Luke Spicer’s brilliance in leading the combined orchestras. … this highly enjoyable rendition was by no means an easy work to put together.” [5 STARS]
– Limelight, July 2025 (live review, Sydney Opera House, Folk Reimagined: East in Symphony concerts)
“Playing as in a dream, Cislowska let the notes drip from her fingers. … Never has the High Court of Australia heard anything so pertinent or spectacular.”
[5 STARS]
– Limelight, May 2024 (High Stakes, with Veronique Serret, William Barton and Aunty Delmae Barton, High Court of Australia, Canberra)
“Cislowska’s dazzling virtuosity made the cascading roulades in Liszt’s Concert Paraphrase on Verdi’s Rigoletto sparkle like so many crystals in a ballroom chandelier, while her treatment of his Abschied showed her also capable of poetic introspection.”
- Sydney Morning Herald, 2023 (live review, City Recital Hall Angel Place)
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