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• one of the most cosmopolitan composers of our time
• her extensive output includes works in almost all classical genres
• received numerous commissions from internationally renowned orchestras and institutions
• her distinctive musical language reflects her singular personal history, from Tashkent over Moscow and Germany to Australia
• after modernist beginnings, she made a fundamental shift towards a more accessible tonal style in the 1990s
• her music since then can be described as a personal amalgam of various influences: minimal music, dance-like music, classical models and folk music traditions
• often combines chiseled rhythmic pulsation with a bittersweet melodic/harmonic language
• in addition to composing for the classical concert and theatre world, she has also written music for silent films, and became known worldwide for her use of Eliza Aria in the TV advertising campaign “For the Journey”
• her operas for young audiences have also been particularly successful

Elena Kats-Chernin’s most successful works include:
Big Rhap (2017) for orchestra.
Orpheus, Odysseus & Poppea (2012) modern adaptation of the Monteverdi operas
Wild Swans (2002) ballet, contains Eliza Aria and Wild Swans Suite
Clocks (1993) for ensemble and tape

Looking Ahead: composer-in-residence at Magdeburg and Bremerhaven during the 2023/24 season, with various concert and dance performances and a new production of her operatic version of The Wind in the Willows (May '24, Magdeburg); new production of Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver in Trier (May '24)

"Her status as one of this country’s most prolific and consistently innovative composers remains unchallenged… [She] appears to achieve the impossible, straddling the two seemingly irreconcilable camps of intellectualism and accessibility." - Sydney Morning Herald

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