Tamara Stefanovich

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

Tamara Stefanovich, born in Belgrade, is captivating audiences worldwide with her unique tailored recital programmes or as soloist with the world’s leading orchestras. A passionate ambassador of broad repertoire from Bach to contemporary, she has performed with 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, Kölner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam. She is a regular guest at international festivals such as Salzburger Festspiele, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, Musikfest Berlin, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Internationales Musikfest Hamburg, Flagey Piano Days, London Piano Festival and BBC Proms.

Following her celebrated debut with Israel Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24 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 captivate audiences with her enthralling recital marathons of 50 Études or 20 Sonatas. Tamara Stefanovich starts the 2023/24 season with an appearance at Beethovenfest Bonn 2023 performing Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony with Beethoven Orchester Bonn followed by concerts with Bremer Philharmoniker, Oregon Symphony and Das Neue Ensemble. Recitals take her to Boulez Saal Berlin, Tonhalle Zürich and Auditorio Nacional Madrid.

Breaking new grounds Tamara Stefanovich collaborates with Christopher Dell, Christian Lillinger and Jonas Westergard for the innovative improvisation band “SDLW”. After its overwhelming premiere at Kölner Philharmonie, the quartet performed in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and at Klangspuren Festival Schwaz. Their first album entitled “SDLW”, released on bastille musique in June 2022, has been praised for its inventive and exciting sound and has been nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award.

Tamara Stefanovich has been working 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, Susanna Mälkki and Osmo Vänskä.

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 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 first solo album Influences was dedicated to the works of Ives, Bartók, Messiaen and Bach on Pentatone. Last season Stefanovich released two more recordings for Pentatone, Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and a solo album Nicolaou Etudes & Frames featuring etudes by Vassos Nicolaou, and one recording for Winter & Winter, featuring Abrahamsen’s Left, alone with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln.

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 of Chamber Music at the Royal Academy of Music and Accademia di Musica Pinerolo. A convinced European, she studied in Belgrade, at Curtis Institute and at Kölner Musikhochschule.

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)