Sonya Lifschitz | Piano
Described by The Age as “a theatre actor, an orchestra and a soloist all at the same time,” and praised by The New York Times for her “dynamic and powerful” performances, Sonya Lifschitz is an award-winning Ukrainian-Australian pianist, performance-maker, educator and cultural leader working at the forefront of classical and contemporary art music. “A life force of extraordinary density and capacity”, Sonya is renowned for her daring collaborations across theatre, dance, film and visual art, creating interdisciplinary performance works that reimagine the possibilities of concert music for the 21st century.
Lauded for her “miraculous keyboard technique and musicianship” (Woodstock Times), Sonya combines virtuosic pianism with an expansive artistic vision that places art music in dialogue with broader cultural, social and political questions.
Sonya has performed at world’s leading international venues, including the Barbican Centre (London), Venice Biennale (Italy), De Doelen (Rotterdam), Bargemusic (New York), Detroit Institute of Arts (USA), and major Australian festivals, including Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin Festivals, Canberra International Music Festival, MONA FOMA, Four Winds, Ten Days on the Island, Metropolis and Extended Play.
Her boundary-pushing projects Canzone, Stalin’s Piano, So Much Myself: Piano Portraits, Crumb’s Lyre and Duet for One have been recognised nationally and internationally for their innovation and artistic ambition. In 2024, Sonya received the Australian Women in Music Award for Excellence in Classical Music for her outstanding contribution to Australian music and has been a regular finalist in the Australian Art Music Awards.
She has collaborated with Australia’s most celebrated artists, including video artist Angelica Mesiti and composer/director Max Lyandvert (Assembly), choreographer Rafael Bonachela and Sydney Dance Company (YEARS), dancer-choreographer Martin del Amo (Mirage), performance artist Christine Johnston (Above/Below, Crumb’s Lyre, Clothing Music), and interactive media artist Tim Gruchy (Duet for One).
A fierce advocate for new Australin music, Sonya has commissioned and premiered works by Australian composers Kate Neal, Robert Davidson, Alice Chance, Damian Barbeler, Andrew Schultz, Jessica Wells, Felicity Wilcox, Anthony Lyons, Larry Sitsky, Bree Van Reyk, Max Lyandvert and Steve Adam among others. She regularly work with pioneering new music ensembles, including Ensemble Offspring, Topology, and members from Clocked Out, Bang on a Can All-Stars (USA), International Contemporary Ensemble (USA) and Eighth Blackbird (USA), to champion music of the 21st century. From 2014-2016 the was the Artistic Co-Director of award-winning new music ensemble Press, Play, receiving the Contemporary Masters Award from the Melbourne Recital Centre in 2015.
Sonya has been featured on ABC and SBS TV and on national radio, including ABC Classic’s Legends, Duet, Festival of Female Composers, New Waves and ABC Radio National’s Music Show. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied with the legendary American pianist-conductor Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music (John Hopkins University, USA) and holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne.
In addition to making work, performing, and researching, Sonya is a passionate educator who strives to inspire and nurture the unique creative potential in all her students. She is an ardent advocate for music as a powerful agency to affect positive social change and uplift the human spirit. In pursuit of pedagogical excellence, she has designed a range of Music Creative Practice courses and Ensembles at the University of NSW that are unanimously recognized by peers and students as innovative, boundary-pushing, transformative, and current with the increasingly challenging and complex demands of the creative industries.