In celebration of the return of live music to the Mechanics Institute at Lawson, The Friends of the Mechanics Institute, in collaboration with the NSW Government and ARIA Great Southern Nights initiative, will present quality live music each Saturday in November.
On November 7, the friends present the pinnacle in classical music composition and performance with Elena Kats-Chernin and Tamara-Anna Cislowska.
Celebrated and acknowledged worldwide as one of Australia's leading contemporary composers, Kats-Chernin has created works in every genre from chamber, choral and orchestral compositions, to music for robotic instruments, and soundtracks for silent films.
Commissions from the world's leading opera, ballet, and theatre companies such as Komische Oper Berlin, Nederlands Dans Theatre and the Vienna Boys Choir, as well as the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and 2003 Rugby World Cup, attest to the wide, irresistible appeal of her music.
Winner of numerous awards for her compositions, Kats-Chernin's opera Whiteley is also nominated in the 2020 International Opera Awards.
Tamara-Anna Cislowska is one of Australia's most acclaimed, ARIA award-winning pianists, performing and recording internationally to critical and public acclaim. With eight chart-topping albums and accolades including the ARIA for best classical album, ABC young performer of the year, Freedman Fellowship and an Art Music award for performance of the year, she performs as soloist with leading orchestras worldwide including the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Beyond the piano, Cislowska's talents as music director, popular radio presenter on ABC Classic and newly as librettist, she collaborates with artists as varied as the ACO, CIRCA, Lang Lang, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Dawn Upshaw.
The Mechanics Institute's artists are supported by local pianist and composer Neil Sagewood playing his original compositions.
Sagewood's touch, colours and explorations of the harmonic range on the piano evoke a serene beauty rarely heard in Australian music.
Tickets $55+bf. Food available. 7pm. COVID-19 plan. Tickets at https://www.trybooking.com/BMERW.