Endorphin Rush

Looking back at Tamara Stefanovich’s September schedule, you see a multifaceted artist at work: She played Stravinsky twice with an all-star lineup at Musikfest Berlin, gave a duo recital with Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Amsterdam, and a solo recital in Regensburg, Germany, with a program of seldom-heard works by Scriabin, Roslavets, and Szymanowski. She also played with an avant-garde jazz quartet in Germany and the Czech Republic. This last month of concerts set the stage for an equally diverse range of programming for the rest of Stefanovich’s 2021-22 season. 

Tamara Stefanovich grew up in what was then Yugoslavia (now Serbia). At 13, she began to study piano—along with psychology, sociology, and pedagogy—in Belgrade. Due to the Balkan War, she continued those studies in the United States with a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her livelihood was determined by that scholarship; in Belgrade, she’d really wanted to study literature. 

Stefanovich has the remarkable ability to call out crises and injustices frankly, while also radiating optimism, warmth, and curiosity from her core. She even manages to see the positive side of my unstable internet connection, which forces us to switch from video chat to a regular phone call: Without a picture, Stefanovich believes, you can express yourself more precisely.