Elan Sicroff will appear with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra at our Messages from Mozart concert on November 5, 2022. Tickets are available online or through our box office.
Elan Sicroff is known as an interpreter of the music written by the Ukrainian composer Thomas de Hartmann (1884-1956)— both the classical music and also the music from the East that he composed in collaboration with the spiritual teacher and polymath George Gurdjieff. In the 1960s he studied with Jeaneane Dowis, protégée and assistant to Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School. In 1972 Elan came across the music of Thomas de Hartmann when he attended a school based on Gurdjieff’s teaching in England. In 1975 he was introduced to Mme. Olga de Hartmann, widow of the composer. He worked with her closely and gave numerous performances of de Hartmann’s music until her death in 1979. In 1982 he toured the US, Canada and the Dominican Republic, programming de Hartmann’s music alongside other classical composers’ works.
Elan has recorded 3 CDs of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music: Journey to Inaccessible Places (1987), Sicroff Plays Gurdjieff (2002), and Laudamus…(2010). From 2011-2016 he lived in the Netherlands, and recorded material for a 7-CD box set of de Hartmann’s works for solo piano, voice and chamber ensemble — completed in 2016 under the title The Thomas de Hartmann Project. This music was re-released in 2021 on Nimbus Alliance Records. In September 2021 Elan recorded the Piano Concerto Op. 61 in Lviv, Ukraine, under the baton of Tian Hui Ng, with the Lviv National Symphony of Ukraine. The recording was released on Nimbus Alliance Records in June 2022, along with the Third Symphonic Poem Op. 85 and the Scherzo fantastique Op. 25.
Presently Elan is promoting de Hartmann’s music with solo and chamber music recitals, as well as lectures and workshops in conservatories and universities. In addition he is engaged in editing and preparing a critical edition of de Hartmann’s classical music for publication. He is scheduled to perform de Hartmann’s colorful Piano Concerto Op. 61 on March 18 2023 with the Pioneer Valley Symphony, under the baton of Tian Hui Ng. Visit the website sicroff.com and thomasdehartmannproject.com for details of upcoming events and other information.