A newcomer to the Australian classical music scene, psychologist and educator Kateryna Collier has worked with artists worldwide, from her native Ukraine to the United States, where she has lived for over fifteen years. Born into traditions of the Russian Piano school, she has witnessed the importance of cultural exchange first-hand, when in early 1990s her parents, an award-winning concert pianist and a Professor of musicology, have taken advantage of the drop of the Iron Curtain by organising two international festivals, starting a piano competition and embarking on the extensive tour to France and the US. That initial international contact, unprecedented for over 70 years, was one of the first successful attempts to not only present an incredible talent of Russian musicians overseas and bring foreign artists to the former Soviet republic, but also to create a dialog between the cultures that has been burgeoning ever since.

Having been involved in tour and concert organising and competition arena since her teenage years, Kateryna has met and worked with some of the world’s most prominent artists and leading administrators. She has organised multiple concerts in Ukraine, France, USA and Canada, ran marketing campaigns and widely engaged in music education which she believes to be the most important endeavor to keep classical music alive. She came up with an idea and later organised a multidisciplinary Performance Academy to help secondary students develop a comprehensive understanding of the musical and organisational aspects of the trade of a concert musician. Her (still) unfinished PhD is dedicated to the analysis of postmodern aspects of formal characteristics of music genre as contrasted to the systematic logic of the mind and the brain.

Through establishing Corps d’Elite, Kateryna hopes to allow Australian audience discover new voices in music, as well as enjoy some of the familiar and favourite performers and compositions. Her goal is to keep music being performed even in the most remote and unusual places, and to provide opportunities for learning about the art for everyone involved.

While the roster is still small, we are working to expand and find opportunities to connect not just performing artists, but other music professionals as well, from academia to recording studios and technicians, to provide the most holistic perspective of the artform as a whole.