Tamara Stefanovich © Marco Borggreve
Tamara Stefanovich
“Fearless, dazzling, exceptional” (The Guardian)
Tamara Stefanovich is captivating audiences worldwide with her highly elaborated recital programmes, as chamber musician or soloist with the world’s leading orchestras. Being passionate about a broad repertoire from Bach to the contemporary, she has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bamberger Symphoniker and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen amongst others. Stefanovich performs at the world’s major concert venues including Suntory Hall Tokyo and London’s Royal Albert and Wigmore Halls. She features in international festivals such as La Roque d’Antheron, Salzburger Festspiele and Beethovenfest Bonn. In the current season Stefanovich will perform at Hamburg’s Elbphihlarmonie, London’s Barbican Center, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Brussel’s Flagey.
The 2018/19 season saw Tamara Stefanovich debut with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, giving the world premiere of Zeynep Gedizliogu’s new piano concerto alongside returns to Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra for performances of Hans Abrahamsen’s “Left, alone”. Highlights of the 2019/20 season include performances with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Kirill Petrenko, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks with Pablo Heras-Casado and Philharmonia Orchestra under Karl-Heinz Steffens amongst others.
Recent engagements have included performances with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. Stefanovich also undertook an extensive US recital tour marking the 90th birthday of Pierre Boulez garnering exultant reviews.
Fruitful collaboration connects Tamara Stefanovich with composers including Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, Hans Abrahamsen and György Kurtág. She works with chamber music partners Such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Matthias Goerne and regularly partners with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski and Susanna Mälkki.
Her award-winning discography includes a recording of Kurtág’s “Quasi una Fantasia” and his double concerto with Asko | Schönberg Ensemble and Reinbert de Leeuw/Jean-Guihen Queyras for ECM. She received the Edison Award and 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. Following her first solo recording with works by Bach and Bartók Tamara is dedicating her second album “Influences” to works of Ives, Bartók, Messiaen and Bach. Since its release on Pentatone in March 2019 “Influences” has received five star reviews and has been praised by critics.
Tamara regularly leads educational projects at London’s Barbican Centre, Kölner Philharmonie and at Klavier-Festival Ruhr such as the innovative online project of interactive pedagogical analyses Boulez’ “Notations”: www.explorethescore.org. She was co-founder and curator of Portland International Piano’s Festival “The Clearing”. A convinced European she studied in Belgrade, at Curtis Institute and at Colognes Musikhochschule.
As of June 2020
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 100th 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.
As of: March 2025