In the past few months of 2009 I’ve written 4 orchestral pieces:

1. Garden of Dreams.. was premiered at the Canberra International Music Festival on the 10th of May at the National Museum of Australia (NMA), conducted by Roland Peelman, with William Barton on didgeridoo and me on the piano. I was commissioned by the NMA to write a piece that would reflect Australian history as well as the Museum's exhibits and I was given much freedom to interpret their request.

The piece is in 6 movements:

I. Beethoven, Sun and Sea

In this movement I respond to Beethoven's 7th Symphony second movement "Allegretto" and the relationship between Europe and Australia in a broad sense.

II. Love Token

One of the exhibits at the Museum was a cartwheel penny from the late 18th century, on which the convict about to be transported to Australia stenciled a message of love. I was fascinated by this and wrote a rhythmical, but also romantic, movement in 5/4. 

III. Industrial Blues

Here I reflect upon the Museum's Architecture which is very unusual and has slanted lines and corners and strange objects that look as if they are going to fall. I am utterly impressed and inspired by such "outside the box" thinking and also the humor of it. This movement touches upon this.

IV. Kimberley Points

The Kimberley Points, the tools with which indigenous Australians caught fish, for example, are very beautiful and poetic. There is an installation at the Museum of the K.P. which is one of my favorite objects and the way it is exhibited is striking and it is lit in such a way that it immediately attracts attention and it was the first movement that I composed spontaneously after visiting Museum in October 2008.

V. Schubert Engine

This is a piece I always wanted to write, it probably does not have so much to do with the given brief, but rather with my own history: I love Fantasy in F minor for 4 hands by Franz Schubert and always wanted to pay a tribute to this piece, in some way. I wanted to transport it to another era and to completely different group of instruments, brass being the emphasized orchestral group in this movement.

VI. Evolving

This movement has to do with the fact that we are in the middle of the history unfolding with all the ups and downs and with much hope for a tolerant and peaceful future.

2. Redmyre Suite for Strathfield Sympony Orchestra's 40th Anniversary, had its premiere on the 4th July at Petersham Town Hal., in Sydney. It was conducted by Sarah-Grace Williams and I was playing an improvised optional piano part. The piece is in 3 movements of which the 3rd movement (most of which is in 10/8) starts with open brass chords. Duration ca 15 min.

3. Golden Kitsch for percussion solo and orchestra and for the glamorous virtuoso Claire Edwardes with the Sydney Youth Orchestra conducted by Max McBride. The premiere was very successful on the 11th/12th July in Sydney at Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The piece is ca 17 min. in one continuous movement. Apart from rapid mallet work on Vibraphone, Claire plays interesting instruments, such as waterphone, which she was bowing with a double-bass bow and a toy piano. As a matter of fact I liked the sound of the toy piano so much that I had two additional toy pianos distributed in the orchestra percussion parts. Also, I gave some toy percussion to the woodwind and brass players to play, things like ratchets and sleigh bells, although in the rehearsals we added some adult ratchets and sleigh bells, they added volume to the sound. Overall, the piece is about fun and shiny sounds inspired by the Vienna Waltz, hence a lot of it is in 3/4. However, the main inspiration was Gustav Klimt and his astounding beautiful paintings and how his iconic images made their way into domestic and souvenir world.

4. Re-collecting Asteroids is a piece inspired by Astor Piazzolla that I wrote for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (premiered 1/2/3 October 2009 at Hamer Hall in Melbourne). Rather than use Piazzolla's actual melodies, I tried to create stylistic elements typical of his music, but still keeping it my own. It is in 5 movements (slow, fast, middle slow, fast and slow).

In the rehearsal process we found out that the piece was much longer than anticipated and if all movements were to be performed, it would have made the whole concert way too long, so the decision was made to play just 3 movements: I, II and V. The piece worked well in this formation. I do look forward, however, to hearing the whole piece done one day soon.  

 I have also written some other works in the past few months: 

1. A private commission by a wonderful cellist, Nicholas Bochner (Deputy Principal Cello at Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) and his sister Melissa for their father's 75th Birthday, a piece for cello solo, played by Nicholas, titled Wisdom Circles, ca 8 min.

Check out this article by Jack Carmody about this commission:

http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/wisdom-circles

In April I went to Eisenstadt, Austria for "Dedicated2Haydn", a festival in which 18 composers from around the world compose piano trios inspired by Joseph Haydn.  My piece Calliope Dreaming was premiered on the 30th April at the Schloss Esterhazy, by the fantastic Haydn Trio Eisenstadt. They are brilliant. And, it was fun to mix with other composers, spend a few days with them and listen to their music. 

Check out this article about the festival:

http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2009/08/haydn-piano-composers-world.

Most recently the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt came to Australia where they gave only one concert, with Callilope Dremaing included, at Llewellyn Hall at the Canberra School of Music. They were the special star guests of the Austrian Embassy. The Ambassador Porias and his wife Mrs. Porias gave us a wonderful welcome and I felt very proud to be their guest.  

Haydn Trio Eisenstadt was in amazing form and played a most magnificent concert that was highly appreciated by the audience.

2. On the 5th December 2009, Michael Collins played Ornamental Air, Cconcerto for Basset Clarinet and Small Orchestra (2 flutes/2 bassoons/2 horns and strings) with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Baldur Bronnimann at the Federation Hall in Hobart. It was a brilliant performance. I feel so uplifted each time I hear Michael Collins play anything really and, of course, it is terribly exciting when he plays my concerto. I wrote a very difficult piece and he makes it sound really easy. The TSO were wonderful and were beautifully conducted.

And what now? For a couple of months I have been working on an opera, Rage of Life to a libretto by the most amazing author, Igor Bauersima. I received the libretto not so long ago and it has been an intense process since it arrived at the end of August. It is an opera for 8 singers and 18 instruments. I have sketched it twice through and some sections of it had about 6 or 7 different versions until I found the way for them to work together. The piece is fun, but also relentless at the same time.

I have learned to sleep very little and FINALLY, I am managing quite OK in regard to my timeframe. Basically, in order to get it done by all the different deadlines of all different stages, I can't afford to sleep at all!!! My two wonderful copyists Peggy and Julie have already typeset the vocal and piano score and are working on different acts simultaneously, so when I get the files back, I can start editing! The next stage will be orchestration and the end of this process is about 2-3 months away. The text is stunning, a kind of a mystical thriller mixed with sharp wit and observational dialogue.

-Elena

Hi Everyone,

I'm very excited to let you know that Elena's work "Russian Rag" was recently used in the claymation film Mary and Max which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is written and directed by Adam Elliot and can now be seen at a theatre near you!

Here's what Elena had to say about the film:

"A year or so ago I was utterly thrilled when I found out that Adam Elliot, Oscar winning creator of the 30 minute claymation 'Harvey Krumpet', wanted to use my piece 'Russian Rag' as one of the themes in his new feature claymation "Mary and Max". Now that I saw this fabulous and touching film in April 09 at its Sydney Premiere, I am so proud that this piece is used as the theme for Max who lives in New York, throughout the film. The way Adam and his team used the music is just brilliant. This photo is taken just before the screening. Mary and Max opened this year's Sundance Film Festival and won Special Mention at Berlin International Film Festival in February 2009."


Elena with Director, Adam Elliot

All best,
Dan
Boosey & Hawkes

-The year started with writing a score for the documentary essay by Kathryn Millard "The Book Cake" about Charlie Chaplin fans in India, this was written for 5 improvising musicians, of which I played piano. It was great fun to record the soundtrack on just one single day in a studio in Sydney in  February and the film is really wonderful.

-Every so often, I have arranged this or that piece of mine for different ensembles or piano solo. For example, I have arranged for piano solo the  following pieces: Fast Blue Village 1, Butterflying, Naive Waltz, I have revisited and corrected some previous arrangements like an original 3 min. version of Eliza Aria for piano solo, also Second Door on the Left (originally for 4 clarinets, then a version for string quartet and a version for flute/piano/cello), as well as Russian Rag simpler version in A minor. 

The Fast Blue Village 1 material originally came from my piece for Present Music, Milwaukee, called Village Idiot, also related to another piece of mine called Fast Blue Air 1 ( for robotic sound machines created by Roland Olbeter). To add to confusion, I also wrote following versions: Fast Blue Village 2 for string quartet, Fast Blue Village 3 for viola and piano as well as Fast Blue Village 4 for 4 clarinets (3 clarinets in B flat and 1 bass clarinet). At some point I renamed all those versions into Urban Village (1,2,3,4) but then returned to the original Fast Blue, because all my friends complained that they did not like Urban Village title and preferred the old!

-Revisited my short 5 minute piece Mater for 10 instruments (wind quintet and string quintet, originally for 6 voices, composed in 2000 for Song Company) to edit, this task now complete.

-March 2008 I was a guest at Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, organized by Charles Amirkhanian and Adam Fong. This included a stay at Djerassi ranch with other composers who were invited. I had a great time meeting "other minds" and it was fun to have my Russian Rag and Fast Blue Village 2  played by the fabulous Del Sol string quartet in San Francisco. The pianist Lisa Moore played the devilishly difficult Tast-en and a little less difficult Purple Prelude flawlessly.

-I did not have much time to stay at home, because a month later, April 2008 I went back to USA for a premiere of my concerto for Basset Clarinet and a small orchestra (Mozart clarinet concerto line-up) Ornamental Air in 3 movements, for Michael Collins and North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Grant Llewellyn. This piece is a co-commission between City of London Sinfonia (which performed the concerto in UK in June under baton of the late Richard Hickox), Swedish Chamber Orchestra (who performed it in November 2008 under baton of James MacMillan), and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (yet to be performed in 2009).  I felt utterly blessed to work with Michael Collins who is just brilliant.

-Immediately after this premiere I flew to London to witness a performance of the Wild Swans Concert Suite for soprano and orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall with London Philharmonic Orchestra under Stephen Barlow's baton, sung by Jane Sheldon, who was the original voice on the CD "Wild Swans". This was an exciting event, produced by the Lloyds TSB. It was in fact the first live performance of the suite since it was recorded.  Also it was good to work with Jane again, who comes from Australia and whom I first met at my home when she came for a first rehearsal with me prior to the recording, in 2004.  Jane's angelic voice has been heard many times in UK in the movement "Eliza Aria" from the WS Suite, in the TV ads for Lloyds TSB.  

-A month later, on the 18th of May Wild Swans Suite had its Australian concert premiere at the Sydney Verbruggen Hall, by SBS Youth Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Krel. Young soprano Simone Easthope sang the vocal part.

-All the while I was working on the oratorio God's Drawing Board based on Ralph Steadman's libretto. I was working alongside David Curtis who was editing the libretto and helping me set the words to the music, i.e. explaining the meaning of the text and suggesting stylistic directions, as well as just inspiring me to come up with some tunes. We were meeting for one day every fortnight from September 2007 till April 2008, till I was ready to write out the vocal score. Then I embarked on the orchestration of this big piece in June, July, August, even if I was on the plane or anywhere travelling. There was lots and lots of pages and it got finished and ready for rehearsals in September 2008. My angel copyist Peggy was invaluable in getting it typeset in time.  Dr. Bruce Menzies conducted the choirs, orchestra and soloists, made up from members of the Armidale community, professional as well as non professional musicians who gave up a lot of their time, skill and knowledge to take part in this.

So, on the 6th December 2008 the premiere of the oratorio happened in Armidale and it was a wonderful success, great performance and audience reception. I came back to Sydney invigorated by this experience and I would love this piece to be performed again. 

-In June 2008, I wrote a 7 min. piece for Haydn Trio Eisenstadt called Calliope Dreaming. The piece belongs to "Dedicated2Haydn" project of the Haydn Trio. Composers of their choice around the world were asked to write a piece commemorating Haydn for TRIOthlon Festival end of April-beginning of May 2009. I based the piece on the motivs from the Mourning Symphony. It is almost a fantasy on the Symphony.

-Also in June, Melba Records released a CD entitled "Phoenix Story" of cello music. On that CD is a piece of mine in two movements, called Phoenix Story written for and played by Ng Twins Cellists Pei-Sian and Pei-Jee Ng. They are astonishing young musicians. I wrote the piece after we initially met in 2006 at fish and chips shop in a Sydney suburb of Coogee. It grew into a wonderful project and I had the best time with them and their supportive family when rehearsing the piece.

-In August, I wrote a piece for 4 hands called Victor's Heart upon a private commission by Dr. Mal Eutick's in memory of his father. This was part of an award ceremony for Eutick Malvin Still Life Awards (EMSLA) at Coffs Harbour Gallery in NSW, Australia. Renate Turrini and I played the premiere of this piece in October 2008. Writing this piece made me want to write more for 4 hands piano.

-In September, I arranged Eliza Aria and Russian Rag for Bass Clarinet, Viola, Cello and Piano. It has not been performed yet. I keep doing such arrangements because of friends who suggest such combinations and then occasionally it is a good break for me to just arrange something rather than compose a completely new piece.

-I have now embarked on composing an orchestra piece, one of the 4 pieces for orchestra that is planned for this year. I am very excited about having a year in which I am doing so many orchestra works. I love writing for orchestra. And these 4 pieces are varied in their content and instrumentation, so each one will have its own distinctive features.

-And how is my bandoneon practice is going??? some might ask... well, I am not much further than I was before going to Germany in October, because I have been travelling so much recently, but I am back into practicing again my favourite Anna Magdalena Bach Menuet in G major! That is all I can do at this point.  But I love every minute of it! (although not sure if people in the house with me - my partner Alexander and my son Nick- also love every minute of it!)

-I was recently in the voting as part of the survey of ABC Classic FM in Australia. My Russian Rag was one of the pieces chosen in the top 100 Classic Chamber Music pieces.  I am quite shocked and grateful at the same time.

-On the subject of top 100, I can't believe the list of top 100 most influential people in Sydney surprisingly included me in the December 2008 edition of The (Sydney) Magazine! It is amazing to be among all those REALLY important people and I don't know how I managed to be in that list, but I accept graciously and am thankful for this honour. It is really nice to be included in this company.

All the best to you in 2009! 

-Elena

Hi Everybody!

Dan from Boosey & Hawkes here. I want to let you know about the launch of a new sponsorship program, Boosey & Hawkes Emerging Composers. In order to foster and develop the next generation of innovative composers, B&H is providing publishing, promotion, and career support to a select group of emerging composers for a specified cycle. B&H inaugurates the program with artists Oscar Bettison, Anna Clyne, and Du Yun, with future signings to be announced.

Oscar Bettison, Anna Clyne, and Du Yun are versatile musicans, equally adept at writing for the orchestra, chamber music, dance, theatre and multi-media. Each composer demonstrates a distinctive voice and highly developed craft. In addition to writing for traditional orchestral and chamber forces, they are each charting new kinds of composition and exploring alternative genres such as multi-disciplinary collaborations. Check them out!

For more information, please read the official press release.

Dear Friends:

Check out this story and video in The Sun!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/music/article663958.ece

Thanks!

Greetings from Boosey & Hawkes!

Are your ears bored? If you like Elena Kats-Chernin then you'd probably enjoy tons of other exciting composers, too.

We're creating a playground for curious listeners to explore all that "classical" music has to offer, with staff-selected radio streams and the ability to search by mood.

Your feedback would be extremely helpful in preparing the website for its official launch. If you're interested please visit www.booseyradio.com and leave your comments on the "What's On?" page. (Please do not reply via myspace with comments)

Thanks so much and enjoy!
Sarah
Boosey & Hawkes

Hi Everyone!

Elena Kats-Chernin, hard at work writing some new music, has asked that we pass along the following news to her friends on Myspace!

Enjoy!

Boosey and Hawkes

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Some Recent Performances:

July 7, 2007
A ravishing performance by the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at Sydney's Verbruggen Hall of The Uninvited Stranger for choir and two pianos (10 min.), with text by Sandy Jeffs.

July 18, 2007 
University of the Arts in Berlin staged a two-hour concert of my music, played by the students as well as some established players, such as flutist Christiane Meininger. One of the highlights was Mater sung by ca 16-20 students (originally a piece for 6 voices).

September 13 and 14, 2007
Displaced Dances, a piano concerto in 12 movements, was performed at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall by Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mr Martyn Brabbins with soloist Stephanie McCallum.  Graeme Skinner of The Sydney Morning Herald described the piece as a "fairytale-like nether world, magical and macabre", saying "the score was equally strong musically and imaginatively" and that "the personalities of soloist and composer had left indelible impressions".

In other news:

I have recently finished composing some miniatures for string quartet.  I now have a growing collection of these pieces, some of which are only 2 minutes long.  The longest, the 5 minute Urban Village 2, based on my ensemble work Village Idiot, premiered in April 2007.  The collection will continue, because I love writing for string quartet.

I have also completed Ornamental Air, a basset clarinet concerto for Michael Collins and small orchestra, as well as Slow Down Lady, for 10 instruments (wind quintet + string quintet) for Sydney Omega Ensemble.  Slow down Lady will premiere at my Gala Birthday Concert at Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith on the 24th of November.

Another new work Lillian's Aria for wordless soprano, euphonium and piano will be premiered on the 26th October at Coffs Harbour Art Gallery, and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Milton will be performing Mythic on November 14 and 15.

In the meantime, my engraving angel Peggy has been updating older pieces of mine and is about to complete Tast-en for piano solo and Purple Prelude for ensemble, a piece from 1996 (recorded on "Clocks" CD by ABC Classics). Tast-en, composed in 1991 was the piece that marked my return to concert music composing after a five year break.

Thanks and more soon!

Elena