BIOG: FILM

Elaine Loebenstein has a special interest in classical improvisation and combines this passion with her sensitivity and sensibilities as an experienced collaborative pianist to respond to filmic art through interactive, spontaneous music-making.

Loebenstein composes in real-time at the piano, reacting to the visual with extemporised music that has been described as a combination of Neo-Classical, Contemporary and Minimalistic styles. No two performances are the same. She has recorded multiple improvised soundtracks for DVD’s of restored archival footage for clients including Editionfilmmuseum and The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, as well as providing the soundtrack to a major exhibition mounted at the National Museum of Australia. Her work with ephemeral footage has appeared in installations in Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Neue Galerie, New York City.

She has appeared at film and arts festivals worldwide including Viennale, Stummfilmtage Bonn, Giornate del Cinema Muto Pordenone, Orphans Festival NYC, the Galway Film Fleadh, Budapest Classics Film Marathon, Rocks Village Bizarre Sydney, the Enlighten Festival Canberra and the Australian National Folk Festival and at venues including Sydney Opera House, Cathedral Hall Melbourne, Parliament House Canberra, Auckland Town Hall, the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, New York University and the SVA Theater in Manhattan. She has toured across regional Australia, including outdoor screenings in Mildura and Mount Gambier as well as at Sun Pictures in Broome, Western Australia (the world’s oldest picture gardens). Recent European tours have included performances in Prague, Budapest, Ljubljana and Linz in co-operation with national archives and film institutes. She performs regularly in Vienna at the Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Metrokino (Filmarchiv Austria) and Breitenseer Lichtspiele as well as at festivals including Pianistengasse and Kino wie noch nie.