Elena Kats-Chernin

Elena Kats-Chernin is one of Australia’s most successful and prolific composers, working across opera, concert music, ballet and film. She even composed our first opera for television, The Divorce, which aired on ABC TV across four episodes in 2015. Most recently, she won rave reviews for the score of Whiteley, our 2019 opera about the life and work of Australian painter Brett Whiteley.

Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan (at the time part of the Soviet Union) and studied in Moscow before moving to Australia in 1975. She studied piano and composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Soon after graduating, she moved to Europe where she worked in some of the world’s most innovative theatres, before returning to Australia in 1994. Since then, she’s composed for many of Australia’s leading orchestras, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and for the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

In this interview with our Artistic Director, Lyndon Terracini, Kats-Chernin talks about her composition process, the advantages and disadvantages of being born with perfect pitch, and how the world of theatre and her many collaborations keep her inspired.