The World of Boris Pasternak | Hannah-Elizabeth Teoh (piano)

Boris Pasternak is celebrated as the Nobel Prize-winning author of Dr Zhivago and one of Russia's most beloved poets, but his first love was music. He was raised amongst the Russian elite, his mother was a renowned concert pianist, and Scriabin and Rachmaninoff were regular household visitors. As a teenager Pasternak was an accomplished pianist with aspirations to become a composer; this concert provides a rare opportunity to hear his only surviving works.

Pasternak's parents were both friends and followers of Tolstoy; a feature of this concert is a specially commissioned work by composer-in-residence Daniel Lee Chappell, based on music attributed to Tolstoy himself.

Hailed for her ‘dark energy’ and ‘uncommon sensitivity’, New Zealand born Hannah-Elizabeth Teoh is one of the most interesting young pianists in the UK. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music, the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and the Royal College of Music, and has won numerous awards including the Harold Samuel Prize, the Florence Murray Award, the Lesley Holland Scholarship and the Ivy Corkill Recital Award. As a concerto soloist she has performed around the world, including a premiere recording of Ross Harris’ Concertino for Piano and Orchestra with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and most recently making her Italian debut with the Master Orchestra in Brescia playing Saint-Saëns’s 2nd Piano Concerto. Supporting her musical life, Hannah-Elizabeth draws inspiration from literature and art and has a Masters in Philosophy from Birkbeck University.