FLUTIST AND DIRECTOR
Australian flutist Tamara Kohler is a musician, arts producer, audio maker and educator, recognised for her "...fearless execution" (CutCommon) in performance.
"Her playing stands out in several ways: breadth of repertoire, adventurous and intellectual grasp of the material, and equal experience as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer"
Tamara is a flutist, CEO of Contemporary Music for all (CoMA) & Co-Artistic Director of Melbourne-based arts music ensemble Rubiks Collective. She is passionate about opening access within the arts for underrepresented voices, working with arts charities Raw Material (UK) and Short Black Opera (AUS) to design and support meaningful community platforms.
Tamara is an alumnus of the Australian National Academy of Music and completed a Bachelor of Music (Performance) at the University of Melbourne. Her teachers have included Mardi McSullea, Virginia Taylor and Jocelyn Edey-Fazzone.
She has also studied internationally throughout Italy, Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden as a recipient of the Skills and Development Grant from the Australian Council for the Arts.
In addition to performing, Tamara’s practice includes improvising, podcasting and teaching. Tamara is passionate about mentoring young artists in venturing towards less-conventional arts careers and has been invited as a guest speaker at the University of Melbourne, Australian National Academy of Music and the Melbourne Recital Centre. She enjoys working in cross-arts platforms and is currently developing a syllabus, working with emerging dancers in their approach to musical expression.
She is a contributor for CutCommon: The New Generation of Classical Music, Loudmouth Music Trust E-Zine and was the producer and presenter of podcast series, MythirdEar.
Tamara has performed countless Australian and world premieres of new works, with her festival credits including the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Metropolis New Music Festival, the inaugural Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab (USA), Australia Fest (IN), Bang on a Can Summer Festival (USA), Darmstadt International Festival for New Music (DE), Port Fairy Spring Music Festival and the 2015 Australian Flute Festival, performing as a soloist in the Australian premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's 'Il Cerchio dei Suoni'.
She performs regularly with Short Black Opera, Victorian Opera and has appeared with other notable ensembles such as Speak Percussion, Plexus and the Omega Ensemble. She has held multiple artistic residencies at the Banff Centre (CAN) and in 2017 was a Classical Freedman Fellowship finalist.