Elena Kats-Chernin is a Soviet-born Australian pianist and composer, best known for her balletWild Swans.
Early life and career
Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent and is Jewish. She studied at the Yaroslavl Music School and the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow from age 14, and migrated to Australia in 1975, continuing her studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, under Richard Toop and Gordon Watson. She also participated in the Darlinghurst underground theatre scene, with groups such as Cabaret Conspiracy, Fifi Lamour, Boom Boom La Burn and others, often under the name Elena Kats.
Europe
Kats-Chernin studied with Helmut Lachenmann in Germany. She remained in Europe for thirteen years, and became active in theatre and ballet, composing for state theatres in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Bochum. In 1993 she wrote Clocks for the Ensemble Modern. It has since been performed around the world.
Australia
Since returning to Australia in 1994, Kats-Chernin has written six operas, two piano concertos and compositions for many performers and ensembles, including The Seymour Group, The Song Company, the Sydney Alpha Ensemble, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Chamber Made Opera, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She was also commissioned to write a piece, Page Turn, for the 2000 Sydney International Piano Competition. Her music was featured at the opening ceremonies of both the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. She also wrote three silent film soundtracks for a co-production between German/French TV channels ZDF/ARTE: Victor Sjöström's Körkarlen, Billy Wilder and Robert Siodmak's People on Sunday, and G. W. Pabst's The Devious Path. Kats-Chernin's other works include Charleston Noir for solo piano, Rockhampton Garden Symphonies with Mark Svendsen for solo voices, mixed choirs and orchestra, and Wild Swans, a collaboration with choreographerMeryl Tankard. She has won numerous music composition prizes in Australia, and her pieces are regularly broadcast on ABC Classic FM radio. In 2009, Kats-Chernin was commissioned by the National Museum of Australia to write a piece for orchestra called Garden of Dreams, named for one of the architectural features of the museum, which premiered at the museum the same year. Performances of Kats-Chernin's music are available on several commercially released recordings. One album is Chamber of Horrors, released in August 2006 by Tall Poppies Records. Chamber of Horrors includes Charleston Noir, for four basses; Chamber of Horrors, for harp, played by Alice Giles; Still Life, for viola and piano ; Gypsy Ramble, for viola, cello and piano ; Wild Rice, for cello ; and Velvet Revolution, for horn, violin and piano. Kats-Chernin's "Eliza Aria" from her score for the ballet Wild Swans is used in Lloyds TSB's 2007 television advertisements. In 2010, Wild Swans became the theme music for ABC Radio National's Late Night Live program until the end of 2015. Kats-Chernin has written a number of ragtime pieces for piano; one of these, "Russian Rag", was used in two different instrumental ensemble arrangements, as the theme of Late Night Live until 2010. It is also used as the New York theme in Adam Elliot's feature film, Mary and Max. Kats-Chernin is a represented composer of the Australian Music Centre. A portrait of Kats-Chernin by Australian portrait artist Wendy Sharpe was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 2019.
Honours
Elena Kats-Chernin was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in January 2019 "for distinguished service to the performing arts, particularly to music, as an orchestral, operatic and chamber music composer".
