ELENA KATS-CHERNIN (1957)
Elena Kats-Chernin was born in 1957 in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent. In 1975, she and her family emigrated from the Soviet Union to Australia. She studied composition with Richard Toop, graduating in 1980, and then studied with Helmut Lachenmann in Hanover, West Germany, with the assistance of a DAAD Fellowship.
While in Europe she became active in theatre and ballet, composing for state theatres in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Bochum. Her music attracted the attention of the Ensemble Modern and in 1993 she wrote her breakthrough work "Clocks" for them.
It has since been performed around the world, including Denmark, Holland, Finland, USA and Australia. The eperimental film by German film maker Kirsten Winter based on 7 minutes of this piece, title "Clocks" won 2 nd Prize at Montreale World Film Festival 1996 and the following collaboration "Smash", also performed by Ensemble Modern, won "best use of sound" category in Ottawa film festival 1998. Last collaboration "escape" won Gold for best short film in Germany in 2002.
Kats-Chernin remained in Germany for 13 years, returning to Australia in 1994. Since her return, she has written 3 operas (the latest, "Undertow", written to the libretto of Juha Vanhakartano and Andrea rieniets was premiered at Adelaide Arts Festival 2004), 2 piano concertos and works for many performers and ensembles, including The Song Company, Ensemble Modern, Evelyn Glennie, Meininger-Trio, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and also for the "Deep Sea Dreaming" Segment of the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games.
She also wrote soundtracks for 3 silent films for German/European TV channel ZDF/ARTE (Victor Sostrom's "Phantom Chariot"/"Korkarlen", Billy WIlder's and Robert Siodmak's "People on Sunday"/"Menschen am Sonntag" and "Crisis"/"Abwege" of G.W. Pabst).
In 1996 she received the Jean Bogan Memorial Prize for piano solo piece "Charleston Noir" and Sounds Australian Award for "Cadences, Deviations and Scarlatti" for 14 intruments.
3 portrait CD's of her music have been released so far: "Clocks", ABC Classics, "Unceremonious Processions", German label Wergo and "Purple Black & Blues", Tall Poppies.
EKC was a featured composer at the Musica Nova festival in Helsinki in March 2001, represented by performances of 11 of her works.
Her score for the ballet "Wild Swans", based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, choreographed by Meryl Tankard, for the Australian Ballet in May/June 03, received acclaimed premiere seasons in Sydney and Melbourne and has had a broadcast on ABC TV in December 2003 and In April 2004 EKC was awarded the 2003 Green Room Award for this score in the category "original music for dance".
In October 2003 EKC wrote music for the Rugby World Cup opening ceremony, Fire and Water segments (the latter danced by “Strange Fruit”).Recently she received Ian Potter Foundation Commission for a piece for Macquarie Trio and soprano. EKC was also awarded a two year Fellowship from the Australia Council for years 2004-2005.
Her chamber music opera "Iphis" will receive its European premiere in March in Freiburg Opera for Young People.
Her music is represented by Boosey & Hawkes.