ELAINE BRENNAN
Pianist and improviser
Creator of music for silent film
LIVE
GIGS
Upcoming shows
VIENNALE 2025: Jean Epstein RetrospectiveFri, Oct 17Wien
VIENNALE: La Belle NivernaiseMon, Nov 03Wien
FILMHAUS: SongSat, Nov 08Nürnberg
METROKINO: Die Reise um die Welt in 80 TagenMon, Nov 10Wien
VIENNALE: Six et demi, onzeWed, Nov 12Wien
METROKINO: Familientag im Hause PrellsteinThu, Nov 13Wien
VIENNALE: La glace à trois faces/ Sa têteFri, Nov 14Wien
INFO
WHO
A first-class graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama London, Irish musician Elaine Brennan trained as a classical accompanist and collaborative pianist. Over the past 15 years she has performed extensively with film. Billed as an outstanding silent film accompanist and improviser (Konzerthaus, Wien) she is regarded as one of the world's leading silent film musicians (Stummfilm Magazin). She composes in real-time at the piano, improvising live soundtracks for classic silents, archival material, experimental film and ephemera. She has created extemporised soundscapes for spoken word performances and literary readings. She recently performed alongside bestselling German author Daniel Kehlmann reading from his book Lichtspiel at a sold-out event in Vienna's Konzerthaus. She has also performed within an exhibition context in response to visual art, providing for example a musical response to the Ned Kelly series of paintings by Sidney Nolan live at the National Gallery of Australia.
WHAT
She performs as a collaborative pianist on the concert stage, with numerous concerts broadcast globally on stations including RTE lyric fm and RTE Radio 1 (Ireland), ABC Radio National and ABC Classic fm (Australia) and Deutsche Welle (Germany). She has played in many prestigious venues such as Sydney Opera House, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, the National Concert Hall Dublin, Cork Opera House, St. Martin in the Fields London, BBC City Halls Glasgow, Glamis Castle, St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh, Llewellyn Hall Canberra, the Australian National Library and at festivals including Art Song and Voices in the Forest (Australia) and the Edinburgh Festival.
WHERE
She performs with film at arts festivals worldwide including Viennale, Stummfilmtage Bonn, Kunstfest Weimar, Giornate del cinema muto Pordenone, Orphans Festival NYC, the Galway Film Fleadh, Budapest Classics Film Marathon, Rocks Village Bizarre Sydney, Enlighten Festival Canberra and the Australian National Folk Festival and at venues including Auckland Town Hall, Canberra Theatre Centre, Australia's Parliament House, Cathedral Hall Melbourne, Belvedere 21 Vienna, New York University and the SVA Theater Manhattan. Recent European tours have taken in Prague, Budapest, Ljubljana and Linz. She performs regularly in Vienna at Metrokino, the Austrian Filmmuseum and Breitenseer Lichtspiele.
WORK
She has recorded improvised soundtracks for several DVD releases of film restorations. Clients have included Edition Filmmuseum, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and the Austrian Filmmuseum. The National Museum of Australia commissioned her to provide the soundtrack for their landmark exhibition Glorious Days: Australia 1913. Her work with ephemeral, experimental and archival footage has appeared in installations in museums worldwide including Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Neue Galerie, New York. She has also devised music for commercial projects and has worked for companies including Bearcage Productions (Australia.)
NEWS
The Magdalene Songs at Oxford International Song Festival
The Mezzo-Soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and pianist Deirdre Brenner will perform the works of female Irish composers including Elaine Agnew, Deirdre McKay, Rhona Clarke and Elaine Brennan at the Oxford International Song Festival in October.