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, theatre, television and the concert hall, with her music performed by all the major orchestras in Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Brandenburg Orchestra and Australian World Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin, City of London Sinfonia, BBC Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony and Luxembourg Philharmonie, as well as the opera houses of Zurich, Berlin (Komische Oper), Antwerp, Stuttgart, Graz, Vienna and more, and in festivals across the world. Elena has collaborated with renowned artists such as Marin Alsop, Avi Avital, Michael Collins, Richard Tognetti, William Barton, Simone Young, and many more, with 2025 premieres in Australia, Luxembourg and Austria. ‘Eliza Aria’ from ballet Wild Swans (choreographer Meryl Tankard) was made famous by British bank Lloyds TSB, and was the highest-voted Australian work in the 2024 and 2025 ABC Classic 100 Countdowns. Kats-Chernin’s ‘Sarenka’ double concerto premiered by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was nominated for ‘Work of the Year’ in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards; her opera ‘Whiteley’ on celebrated Australian artist Brett Whiteley was nominated as ‘Best world premiere’ in the 2020 International Opera Awards, and her episodic opera for television, The Divorce, reached over a million viewers on ABC iView.
Most recently, Elena Kats-Chernin composed the music soundtrack to Oscar-winning director Adam Elliott’s full-length claymation film “Memoir of a Snail”, which was an official nomination in the 97th Academy Awards and 82nd Annual Golden Globes, and won the top Cristal award for ‘Best Feature Film’ at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, ‘Best film’ at the BFI London Film Festival, among many others. She composes for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 50th anniversary season including an adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ bestselling book ‘Where to hide a star’, and performs in live concert screenings of ‘Memoir of a Snail’. Elena also performs, solo, alongside internationally acclaimed pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska – including for Human Waves, commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and extended with support from River City Voices – and on tour for William Yang’s widely praised new work, Milestone, premiering at the Sydney and Brisbane Festivals, Melbourne’s AsiaTOPA Festival, Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival, and Seoul Performing Arts Festival (Korea), with music composed by Kats-Chernin. In 2026, Elena’s music continues to be heard on stages and in cinemas around the world, featuring on True South, the celebrated documentary about the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race; with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (Perth), regional centres and with premieres of musicals and operas in Germany, Austria and beyond.
Elena Kats-Chernin’s music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes, appearing on labels such as Deutsche Grammophon (DG), Universal Music, ABC Classics, Move among others. With a new album featuring soloist Tamara-Anna Cislowska and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, ‘Ancient Letters’ (ABC Classics) reaching no.1 on the ARIA charts and Limelight Editor’s Choice (December 2025), other notable releases include ARIA no. 1 albums Butterflying and Unsent Love Letters (performed by Tamara-Anna Cislowska), the ‘Elena Kats-Chernin Collection’, a limited edition 10-disc box set featuring several large-scale works from the past 25 years, and several DG albums performed by world-renowned artists such as violinist Daniel Hope, pianist Lang Lang, and 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.
