As the world holds its breath whilst events in Eastern Europe continue to unfold, it seems a fitting introduction to one amazing woman, hailing originally from the independent state of Georgia.
Tamara Konstantin is a multi-talented pianist and composer who anchors elite musical trio, The Three Graces, featuring legendary cellist Jiaxin Lloyd-Webber, wife of Julian, and the violinist Elly Suh. Tamara’s modest demeanour belies her global profile in spite of just stepping off a 23 date UK Holy Buildings tour with national treasure Aled Jones.
Tamara has certainly come full circle, having begun her extraordinary career as a pianist prodigy at the tender age of 5, she went on to graduate with honours from the Tbilisi Music Academy and was instantly catapulted to stardom, performing solo recitals supported by no less than The Georgian State Symphony Orchestra.
Despite this incredible start, Tamara’s complex genius led her to look beyond the world of music and she applied to Tbilisi University to study linguistics. ‘I was attracted to the components of language just as I was fascinated by the structure of music’ she explains, ‘each separate piece of data combining to create a nuanced whole’. A shining success in her chosen subject, she went on to land a role as the first ever female political correspondent for Georgian Television. Her trajectory in the media was abruptly re-routed when Tamara fell in love with an Englishman whom she married and accompanied to London in 1990, with the daunting prospect of yet another fresh start.
Totally unfazed by being a stranger in a strange land, Tamara immediately embarked on an entirely new professional path, this time within the oil industry. In true Tamara style she was rapidly promoted to the position of Vice President of a listed oil and gas exploration company with connections to her homeland. The icing on the cake was to receive a show-stopping award – a Medal of Honour from the Georgian President for her contribution to the local oil and gas sector. ’I have never been so proud’ she explains. ‘It was an opportunity to give back to the country which has given me so much and actually, I would have put the hours in for nothing’.
Tamara now lives in Dorset and has taken a break to focus on music. Over the last decade, Tamara has been inspired by the county coastline to compose pieces of haunting beauty, releasing her much-acclaimed debut album, Inflections, in 2016 which was nominated CD of the week by The Lady. Her tracks are already favourites on Classic FM, BBC
Scotland (Classics Unwrapped) and BBC Solent.
Despite her growing international reputation, Georgia’s adored diva regularly returns to her homeland to perform. Tamara was honoured with a First Prize award by The Georgian
Composer’s Guild and still regularly performs in her homeland both live and on Georgian TV and CMUSIC TV.
Her second album, Reverie, was released in March 2019 and in November of that year, Tamara was invited to perform her own music before HRH Prince Charles at a Duchy of
Cornwall spectacular.
It is Tamara’s third album, Resilience, released at the end of last year, which features most prominently in the Holy Buildings repertoire. Resilience reflects the pain of lockdown
and is a personal message of love, hope and affection to the people and places closest to Tamara’s heart who were devastated by the pandemic. ‘I missed my son and his family
desperately’ she explains, ‘I know this heartache was replicated the world over and I was inspired to reach out to everyone in pain’.
The album is an homage to hope and illustrates Tamara’s belief in the power of music to console, to uplift, and to bring people together. How appropriate then, that such a talent from the East, a corner of the world currently in the sharpest focus, should bring to us in the West such a powerful, timely testament to the human spirit when it is most needed.
