Tamara Stefanovich

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“The colossal energy of Stefanovich’s performance was hugely impressive”
(The Telegraph)

One of the leading interpreters of contemporary piano repertoire today, Tamara Stefanovich dedicates herself to making the classical modern works as well as countless new compositions very much her own, captivating audiences worldwide with her uniquely tailored recital programmes and as soloist with the world’s leading orchestras. She partners with ensembles such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, amongst others. Stefanovich performs at the world’s major concert venues including Suntory Hall Tokyo, London’s Royal Albert and Wigmore halls, Philharmonie Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris and Tonhalle Zürich. A welcome guest at international festivals, she appears at Salzburger Festspiele, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, Musikfest Berlin, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Musikfest Hamburg, Flagey Piano Days, London Piano Festival and the BBC Proms.

Following her celebrated debut with Israel Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko and the German première of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No.3 with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stefanovich continues to present a large range of piano concertos from Liza Lim’s World as Lover, World as Self to Ravel, Abrahamsen, Bartók and Szymanowski, and to enthral audiences with her recital marathons of 50 Études and 20 Sonatas. Tamara Stefanovich begins her 2024/25 season with performances of Luigi Nono’s majestic concerto Como una ola de fuerza y luz with Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, followed by engagements with Fundação Casa da Música, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Recitals take her to Boulez Saal Berlin, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Gewandhaus Leipzig and Wigmore Hall amongst others.

Breaking new grounds, Tamara Stefanovich collaborates with Christopher Dell, Christian Lillinger and Jonas Westergard for the innovative band SDLW. After its’ astounding premiere at Kölner Philharmonie, the quartet performed in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and at Klangspuren Festival Schwaz. They released two albums on bastille musique in 2022 and in 2024, which have both been praised for their inventive and exciting sound — the most recent album winning the German Record Critics’ Award 2024.

Tamara Stefanovich has worked with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Sir George Benjamin, György Kurtág and Hans Abrahamsen. She works with chamber music partners such as Matthias Goerne, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, and Joana Mallwitz.

Her award-winning discography includes a recording of Kurtág’s Quasi una Fantasia and his double concerto with Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Reinbert de Leeuw and Jean-Guihen Queyras for ECM which received the Edison Award. Her recording of Bartók’s Concerto for two pianos, percussion and orchestra with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Pierre Boulez (Deutsche Grammophon) was nominated for a Grammy Award. Tamara’s album Influences was dedicated to the works of Ives, Bartók, Messiaen and Bach on Pentatone. Her most recent album on Pentatone is devoted to Pierre Boulez’s Second Sonata and will be released on the occasion of the composer’s 100^th anniversary in March 2025.

Tamara regularly leads educational projects at London’s Barbican Centre, Kölner Philharmonie and Klavier-Festival Ruhr. She was co-founder and curator of the Portland International Piano Festival ‘The Clearing’ and Visiting Professor at the London Royal Academy of Music and Accademia di Musica Pinerolo. She studied in Belgrade, at Curtis Institute and at Kölner Musikhochschule under Claude Frank and Radu Lupu.

HarrisonParrott represents Tamara Stefanovich for worldwide general management.

Tamara Stefanovich - Bach: Partita No. 2 (excerpt) © Tamara Stefanovich - Bach: Partita No. 2 (excerpt)

Tamara Stefanovich - Bartók: Three Burlesques (excerpt) © Tamara Stefanovich - Bartók: Three Burlesques (excerpt)

S. Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances op. 45 for two pianos (Tamara Stefanovich & Nenad Lečić) © GrandPiano

Amsterdam Sinfonietta & Tamara Stefanovich © GrandPiano

Unsuk Chin - Klavierkonzert | Tamara Stefanovich | WDR Sinfonieorchester | WDR 3 © WDR Klassik

“In 2019 Tamara Stefanovich treated London to a thrilling survey of the piano étude in the last century, from Scriabin to the present day, which was one of the highlights of the musical year in the capital. Now she has turned her attention to sonatas, and devised a three-part recital – over two and a half hours of music, taking in 20 works – that mixes the baroque and the modern, and carefully avoids what many would see as the heyday of the piano sonata, from Haydn and Mozart to Brahms and Liszt.”

(The Guardian, February 2022)

“Her mastery of the technical challenges in every one of these pieces one quickly took for granted, but the textural imagination she brought to every piece was a constant delight.”

(The Guardian, November 2019)

“Stefanovich took its technical challenges in her stride with the same aplomb and fierce engagement that she brought to the Ives; it was hardly surprising after so many notes that her encore should have been entirely silent, a tiny piece of Kurtág in tribute to his 90^th birthday this month, in which the pianist mimes a performance but without sounding a note. An exceptional recital, every bit of it.”

(The Guardian, February 2016)

“A dazzlingly clear performance”

(The Guardian, March 2015)

“Ms. Stefanovich’s performance was staggeringly brilliant”

(New York Times, March 2015)

“Ligeti’s Etudes are now central to the modernist piano repertoire, but are rarely performed with the agility or grace we heard here… The sheer playfulness of these pieces was beautifully expressed… (Stefanovich) delivered a stunning, bravura performance. A spectacular conclusion to an impressive recital.”

(The Arts Desk, December 2014)

“Tamara Stefanovich… performed the freshest piano concert yet presented by Portland Piano International… Stefanovich proved a savvy musical chef, pairing Messiaen with late Franz Liszt on the first half of Monday’s concert and Sergei Rachmaninov with Ligeti on the second half… no sleepy eyes this night. As Stefanovich used one hand to turn the page from Messiaen into Liszt and Rachmaninov into Ligeti, and the other hand to sustain the last chord into the beginning of the next, the audience’s energy and curiosity perceptibly heightened. Under the hands of Stefanovich, these composers highlighted characteristics in each other that otherwise wash out in the static of their own voice… Stefanovich not only lived up to her nickname as the “dexterous wizard,” but through her masterclass at Portland Piano Company on Saturday and her brief explanations on stage, she demonstrated a disarming ability to inspire students and listeners to explore new musical spaces.”

(Oregon Arts Watch, October 2014)

“Tamara Stefanovich performed one of the most intriguing piano concerts that I’ve ever heard on Monday evening at Lincoln Hall… All of the pieces were played brilliantly by Stefanovich, but the exchange of etudes left the biggest impression of the evening. Stefanovich’s pairing of six Ligeti études with six by Rachmaninoff worked superbly. In fact, each seemed to expand the sonic landscape of the other… Stefanovich created colorful sonic landscapes with the Rachmaninov, controlling the dynamics and playing with verve…. The audience went wild after the Stefanovich concluded the final Ligeti étude. She is a tremendous talent, and hopefully we will see her again soon in Portland.”

(Northwest Reverb, October 2014)

“Hectic nimbleness”

(Northwest Reverb, October 2014)

“[Tamara Stefanovich] once again proved her unmistakeable standing as one of the leading pianists of current times.”

(NMZ, March 2014)