There's something quite intimate about watching Elena Kats-Chernin and Tamara-Anna Cislowska at the piano together. They share a space, their hands working independently but together to create something quite magical.
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The pair have known each other since 1994 when they were introduced by Belinda Webster, a tireless campaigner for Australian chamber music. Kats-Chernin, one of Australia's leading composers, was writing a piano piece at the time and Cislowska, who was still a teenager at the time, agreed to perform the premiere.
Over the years the pair have moved in and out of each other's lives, funnily enough often running into each other via the Canberra International Music Festival, now in its 20th year.
In 2002 they collaborated on a piece for the Australian Chamber Orchestra and then in 2011 they reconnected again when Kats-Chernin composed a piece for four hands on the one piano.
"I thought Tamara would be the perfect person to do this with," Kats-Chernin said.
"The first time we played a four hands piece people said we should do that more often because it went so well, we had so much fun, and we agreed we should do it more often."
It was three years before they held their "first proper concert" with material written by Kats-Chernin. They've also released a CD called Butterflying. Their most recent CD Unsent Loveletters: Meditations on Erik Satie is currently riding high on the ARIA classical charts.
At this year's CIMF they're collaborating for a concert called Russian Roots and Rags. a four-hand tribute to their Slavic ancestry and Australian circumstance.
"Everything sounds Russian, even if it's French, it's still Russian," says Kats-Chernin who was born in Uzbekistan and came to Australia in 1975.
"You can take me out of Russia, but you can't take Russia out of me.
"Everything I write has a slight Russian flavour, Russian harmonies … I'm saturated with those chords, I can't get them out of my head."
Kats-Chernin has written operas, concertos, dozens of instrumental pieces, film scores and a ballet. She wrote Deep Sea Dreaming for the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. Snippets of her seductive Russian Rag (which will feature in the Canberra concert) and Eliza Aria have been used as themes for Phillip Adams' Late Night Live radio program for many years.
For all her international acclaim, Kats-Chernin still enjoys the shared moments on the piano.
"You invite someone into your space … it has to be somebody you like and get on with, you have to organise some things, like who sets the pace, who plays the foot pedals, who sits on the left, who sits on the right, on the bottom, on the top."
She and Cislowska switch occasionally, taking turns playing bass and melodies. For their best-known four-hands piece, Eliza Aria, they've tried it both ways.
"But we just think it works best when Tamara plays the top part and I play the bottom."
Kats-Chernin says she always feels relaxed on the piano with her friend.
"Tamara has been on stage since she was two and a half, she's never nervous and that's contagious.
"I feel at ease and the audience is at ease, is friendly and welcoming, and we try to create this very fun atmosphere.
"It's important for us to establish a relationship with the audience and communicate. If we enjoy it, the audience can feel that and they enjoy it too."
Kats-Chernin loves the feel of festival time.
"[CIMF 2017 musical director Roland Peelman's] knowledge of music and musicians is huge. That's the two things, you have to know what's to be played and who to invite, and that connection is always mysterious and exciting."
Just as she and Cislowska have crossed paths many times on the festival circuit, she said one thing she enjoys is meeting other musicians.
"You meet and keep in touch, new collaborations are formed, it's a fantastic melting pot of musicians."
Russian Roots and Rags: Elena and Tamara-Anna at the piano, Canberra International Music Festival, Saturday May 6, 2017. 4pm. Fitter's Workshop, Canberra Glassworks, Kingston. Book tickets online at cimf.org.au
