BIO FILM

Elaine Loebenstein has a special interest in classical ​improvisation and combines this passion with her ​sensitivity and sensibilities as an experienced ​collaborative pianist to respond to filmic art through ​interactive, spontaneous music-making.


Loebenstein composes in real-time at the piano, reacting ​to the visual with extemporised music that has been ​described as a combination of Neo-Classical, ​Contemporary and Minimalistic styles. No two ​performances are the same. She has recorded multiple ​improvised soundtracks for DVD’s of restored archival ​footage for clients including Editionfilmmuseum and ​The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, as ​well as providing the soundtrack to a major exhibition ​mounted at the National Museum of Australia. Her work ​with ephemeral footage has appeared in installations in ​Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Neue Galerie, New York ​City.

She has appeared at film and arts festivals worldwide ​including Viennale, Stummfilmtage Bonn, Giornate del ​Cinema Muto Pordenone, Orphans Festival NYC, the ​Galway Film Fleadh, Budapest Classics Film Marathon, ​Rocks Village Bizarre Sydney, the Enlighten Festival ​Canberra and the Australian National Folk Festival and ​at venues including Sydney Opera House, Cathedral Hall ​Melbourne, Parliament House Canberra, Auckland ​Town Hall, the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, ​New York University and the SVA Theater in Manhattan. ​She has toured across regional Australia, including ​outdoor screenings in Mildura and Mount Gambier as ​well as at Sun Pictures in Broome, Western Australia ​(the world’s oldest picture gardens). Recent European ​tours have included performances in Prague, Budapest, ​Ljubljana and Linz in co-operation with national ​archives and film institutes. She performs regularly in ​Vienna at the Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Metrokino ​(Filmarchiv Austria) and Breitenseer Lichtspiele as well ​as at festivals including Pianistengasse and Kino wie ​noch nie.


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FILM LIST

Film Performances


This list is by no means exhaustive but rather is intended to show the broad range of silent classics that Elaine has ​enjoyed creating live soundtracks for:







Silent Film Series

Additionally she has played for silent film series incorporating the major works of directors including D.W. Griffith, Erich ​von Stroheim, Howard Hawkes, Joe May and Yasujirō Ozu.


Short Film Programmes

She has performed for numerous short film programmes incorporating documentary, ephemeral, orphan, advertising ​and newsreel footage. These programmes have included collections such as The Corrick Collection (NFSA Australia), and ​Victorians on the Big Screen: Films made by the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company (BFI London). She has ​accompanied several programmes exploring early French cinema including the grouped works of filmmakers such as​ Georges Méliès, Pathé Frères, Roméo Bosetti and Gaston Velle.



She has played for a diverse range of archival material presented at festivals, conferences and symposiums such as the ​Orphans Film Symposium in New York, Orphans Special Edition Vienna and the Galway Film Fleadh as well as ​accompanying an extensive series celebrating the work of FIAF (the International Federation of Film Archives) at the ​Austrian Filmmuseum. In this series, curators from member archives personally introduced innovative and thoughtful ​programmes showcasing their own collections.

She has played for documentary and actuality films in historical programmes – particularly in Austria and Australia – ​including many showing Vienna in the silent era, Red Vienna in Die Ersatzrevolution. Filme des Roten Wien[29] and ​Sydney in the early 1900's. She will perform with similar materials in a number of programmes at the upcoming ​conference of Domitor,[30][31]the International Society for the Study of Early Cinema.

In what was her first ever performance with silent film, she accompanied a collection of interesting and bizarre ​materials from the Irish Film Archive at the Kilruddery Silent Film Festival. Additionally she performed at the Saving ​Private Reels conference in University College Cork.



For further information on Soundtracks, DVD releases etc see main website:

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