BIOG:PIANO

Irish pianist Elaine Loebenstein is an experienced accompanist, collaborative pianist and improviser based in Vienna. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Loebenstein completed a Masters in Advanced Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under the tutelage of renowned pianists including Graham Johnson. She was subsequently awarded the Broadwood Fellowship in Advanced Accompaniment by the RSAMD in Glasgow (now RCS). As a concert accompanist she has performed with numerous instrumentalists and singers in recital at venues including the National Concert Hall Dublin, Cork Opera House, St. Martin in the Fields London, Kelvingrove Museum Glasgow, BBC City Halls, St. Giles’ Cathedral Edinburgh, Teatro della Maestranza Seville, the Magnificent Spiegeltent, Canberra Theatre, the National Library of Australia, MOAD, Wesley Music Centre and Llewellyn Hall Canberra, and at festivals including the Edinburgh Festival, the Canberra Centenary Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Boyle Arts Festival, Voices in the Forest and Art Song.

She has appeared internationally on radio and television including live broadcasts on RTE Lyric FM, RTE Radio 1 and RTE Television (Ireland), ABC Radio National, ABC Canberra and ABC Classic (Australia), Deutsche Welle (Germany) and ÖRF (Austria). Work with choirs and ensembles has included performing with the Riverina Chamber Orchestra and the Canberra Festival Orchestra (Australia), Glasgow Philharmonic Choir, the Gliondar Ensemble and the National Wind Ensemble of Great Britain. She has been employed by Lyric Opera Ireland, Glasthule Opera, New Dublin Voices, the National Chamber Choir of Ireland, UCD Choral Scholars, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, RTÉ, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, TU Conservatory of Music and Drama Dublin and the School of Music at Australia National University.

Her extended skills as an accompanist and particularly as an improviser allow a huge degree of flexibility in terms of collaboration with artists of all genres, and with other art forms including spoken word, literature and poetry as well as with visual art. She had the privelege of extemporising a musical response to a major retrospective of the work of Australian artist Sidney Nolan live at the National Gallery of Australia. Most recently she performed alongside bestselling author Daniel Kehlmann reading from his book Lichtspiel at a sell-out event in Vienna’s Konzerthaus.