Tamara Konstantin
Tamara Konstantin learned to play piano as a child growing up in Georgia. After attending a special music school for gifted children, culminated her piano studies at the Tbilisi Music Academy where she performed with the State Symphony Orchestra of Georgia and gave many solo recitals.
She then completed a linguistics degree at Tbilisi State University before being offered a job as the first female political commentator on Georgian television. Later she married an Englishman, moved to the UK and reinvented herself once again when she took a job in the oil industry helping companies negotiate their strategies in the former Soviet Union and Central Asia eventually rising to become Vice President of Business Development.
Her love of music returned to the fore when she complained to her husband about a modern atonal piece of music to which they had both listened to at a concert. Her husband challenged her to write something better and an intense period of creativity followed.
Tamara released her much acclaimed debut album, Inflections, in 2016 and was nominated CD of the week by Lady Magazine. Compositions from the album have been played on Classic FM, BBC Scotland (Classics Unwrapped) and BBC Solent.
Tamara’s second album, Reverie, was released in March 2019 and in November 2019, Tamara had the huge honour of performing her compositions in front of HRH Prince Charles.
Tamara was awarded First Prize by The Georgian Composer’s Guild for her work and has performed selections from it at a number of concerts. Several TV features also followed, including CMUSIC TV and Georgian State Television. Her music is frequently played on Classic FM.
Now the talented romantic pianist and composer is destined to make waves in the world of modern classical music with the release of her much anticipated new album Resilience.
The classically trained pianist from Georgia, who built successful careers first as a TV presenter and then a senior oil company executive before moving to Dorset and returning to music, has produced a triumphal new body of work combining original compositions of beautifully crafted melodies that showcase her outstanding pianistic technique and ability to speak through music.
Produced during a time of great global crisis, Resilience reflects the pain of lockdown and is personal message of love, hope and affection to the people and places closest to Tamara’s heart; several pieces evoke the anxiety and isolation caused by the Covid-19 epidemic and the heartache of not being able to see her son and his family. There are compositions that cleverly translate into music the beauty of her beloved home county of Dorset (continuing her popular Dorset Sketches series) and the natural beauty of places further afield including reference to her native land of Georgia.
The new album demonstrates Tamara’s electric creativity and fuses her love of Chopin’s romanticism, Rachmaninoff’s strength and Beethoven’s dynamism with her own mesmerising and passionate compositions and operatic melodies. Overall, the work is a testament to her belief in the power of music to console, to uplift, and to bring people together whether in joy or sorrow – the power to help us find a spirit of Resilience.
This is no better illustrated than in the first single ‘Elixir Of Life’ from the album to be released on October 1st. Tamara explains: “’Elixir Of Life’ started life as a melody on an ostinato keyboard part and I then built the piece from there. The melody and plaintive mood suggested by the chords portrays lived experience, of loss, anxiety and isolation, reflection and strength, drawn from the trials of living through the pandemic. I have tried to evoke feelings that most of us will recognise, including a sense of loss and heartbreak juxtaposed with the empowerment of love, hope, family and community.”
A testament to her vision, prodigious talent and ability to speak through music, the work was written for and performed by Tamara’s piano trio who perform together under the name The Three Graces and include the immensely talented violinist Elly Suh and acclaimed cellist Jiaxin Lloyd Webber.
Described as a ‘highly accomplished composer’ ‘superb musician’ and ‘polished performer,’ Tamara Konstantin’s auspicious new collection ‘Resilence’ will undoubtedly project this star in its ascendancy.
