As one of Australia’s foremost contemporary composers, Elena Kats-Chernin’s vibrant and distinctive music across all genres has reached millions worldwide, featuring at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, 2003 Rugby World Cup and 2018 Commonwealth Games. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she has received numerous prizes including Helpmann, Limelight, Sounds Australian and Sydney Theatre Awards, the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award and the 2022 Australian Women in Music Award (AWMA) for ‘Artistic Excellence’.
Kats-Chernin has written for ballet, opera and theatre, and is performed by all major orchestras in Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Brandenburg Orchestra and Australian World Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Komische Oper Berlin, Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin, City of London Sinfonia, BBC Orchestra, and in festivals across the USA, Europe, and throughout Australia. She has collaborated with well-known artists such as Marin Alsop, Avi Avital, Michael Collins, Mahan Esfahani, Shobana Jeyasingh, Richard Tognetti, William Yang, Tamara-Anna Cislowska, Simone Young, and many more, and was the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural Composer in Residence in 2017.
Kats-Chernin’s opera, WHITELEY, for Opera Australia, on the life of iconic Australian artist, Brett Whiteley, was nominated in the 2020 International Opera Awards for ‘Best new opera’; Eliza Aria from ballet Wild Swans (choreographer Meryl Tankard) was made famous by British bank Lloyds TSB and continues to warm hearts, earning the highest votes in the 2024 ABC Classic 100 for an Australian composer, and female composer; Kats-Chernin’s famous Russian Rag began in Adam Elliot’s award-winning claymation film Mary and Max. Elena also composed the music for the first ever Australian episodic opera for television, The Divorce, watched by over a million viewers on ABC TV. Recent world premieres include works commissioned for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and more, including new music for film, string ensembles, and a fourth piano concerto.
2024 highlights included Kats-Chernin’s second collaboration with Melbourne-born Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam Elliot in his feature-length animation, Memoir of a Snail, which was awarded the 2024 Annecy International Film Festival top Cristal award for an animated feature film, and opening the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). Elena’s music premiered with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Kaddish: a Holocaust Memorial concert; featured with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with the UK premiere of Fantasie im Wintergarten; in the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s family production of Oliver Jefferies’ beloved children’s book, How to catch a star.
The current season heralds continuing success for Memoir of a Snail, with nominations in the 2025 Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and AACTA Awards, with the soundtrack released on ABC Music and live performances planned, and in BBC Radio 3’s 25 for 25: Sounds of the Century project, with her piece ‘Rainbow Promise’ receiving its world premiere by the BBC Scottish Orchestra, on air in April. Kats-Chernin composed and performs her music with orchestra in a second collaboration with celebrated Chinese-Australian photographer and performer, William Yang, in his acclaimed new project, Milestone – premiering at Sydney Festival, and AsiaTOPA Festival (Melbourne). With further operatic, orchestral and choral premieres around Australia, Austria and Luxembourg, Elena and her music also feature with River City Voices, the ACO, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, on tour with the Australian Youth Orchestra, New Zealand Trio, and more.
Other recent highlights include the world premiere of Kats-Chernin’s first violin concerto, Fantasie im Wintergarten, commissioned by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; her music for E.A. Dupont’s silent film Varieté from 1925, and her ‘Sarenka’ double concerto premiered Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and nominated for ‘Work of the year’ in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards. Sydney Festival premiered FORM Dance Project’s ‘KAIROS’ featuring Kats-Chernin performing her music live at the piano, choreographed by Meryl Tankard with visuals by Regis Lansac. Human Waves, commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, with libretto by Tamara-Anna Cislowska, also received its world premiere in full choir and orchestral presentation at the Sydney Opera House, with the same venue featuring Elena’s music in Inside/Out at the House, its 50th birthday concert performed to an audience of thousands by Sydney Symphony Orchestra and guests. Kats-Chernin delivered the 2023 Peggy Glanville-Hicks address, and was honoured as inaugural 3MBS’ Artist-in-Residence the same year. Composer-in-residence at Magdeburg and Bremerhaven during the 2023/24 season, premieres in Europe included a new production of Kats-Chernin’s operatic version of The Wind in the Willows; the world premiere of her children’s opera Nils Holgersson’s Wondrous Adventures at Komische Oper Berlin; and new productions of Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver in Zurich (Swiss premiere).
Kats-Chernin’s music is is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes, and recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and ABC Classics, whose releases include ARIA no. 1 albums Butterflying and Unsent Love Letters (performed by Tamara-Anna Cislowska), and the ‘Elena Kats-Chernin Collection’, a limited edition 10-disc set featuring several large-scale works from the past 25 years with recordings by world-renowned artists such as violinist Daniel Hope, pianist Lang Lang, and many more.
Latest News
Elena Kats-Chernin’s music features in Oscar-winning filmmaker, Adam Elliott’s new feature-length claymation, Memoir of a Snail, winner of the 2024 Annecy Animation Festival’s top award, the Cristal for a Feature Film – and set to open the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 8, 2024 (released in Australian cinemas on October 17, 2024):
- “Equally as powerful is the film’s timeless and tender score, by Australian classical composer Elena Kats-Chernin.”
– ScreenDaily, June 2024 - “Accompanying it all is a striking score by classical composer Elena Kats-Chernin, played with gusto by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and enhanced by passages of vocalizing from soprano Jane Sheldon.”
– The Hollywood Reporter, 2024
ABC Classic 100 (June 2024): Elena Kats-Chernin’s Eliza Aria from Wild Swans voted in at #17, the highest ranked Australian composer, and female composer in this year’s popular classical music vote, on the theme of ‘Music that makes you feel good’. Read more here.
