is a composer and interdisciplinary artist whose work explores sound as a spatial and temporal phenomenon. Combining traditional instruments with found objects, movement, and performative situations, she creates pieces that unfold as intricate sound worlds rather than linear narratives. Her scores often employ nontraditional notation and exist equally as visual and performative artifacts.
She has written solo, chamber, and ensemble works, electroacoustic works, music theatre pieces, and musical performances for major new music groups around the world, as well as music for film and visual media.
She holds a PhD from Harvard University, where she also taught composition and electroacoustic music as a Teaching Fellow. Elena is currently based in Lausanne. She serves on the programming committee of Société de Musique Contemporaine (SMC) and as a board member of Swiss Music Edition (SME). From 2024 to 2026, she was Artistic Director of the Basel-based ensemble Lemniscate.
She is currently Associate Professor of Composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In Spring 2026, she was Guest Professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) in Barcelona.
Selected works: The Mirror of Galadriel, performance for a table tennis table, pine cones, two performers, live video projection and amplification (2012), TypewritERyk for flute, clarinet and accordion (2013), Quest#, open score for 6–9 unspecified chromatic instruments (2013), Alone against the wall for ensemble and objects (2013), Purple Haze for accordion (2013), a blink of the evanescent smile for prepared violin, cello, acoustic guitar and amplification (2014), Stop at the next cloud or I’ll turn into a scorpion for clarinet and timpani, cello, two home-swinger instruments, objects and installation (2014), Marionette for violin with amplification (2014), Bat Jamming, duo for two performers inside a piano (2015), 101% mind uploading for piano, objects and percussion (2015), Life expectancy. Experience #1. The Sun for seven astro-performers, specially constructed instruments and lights (2015–16), Life expectancy. Experience #2. Your Moon for prepared cello, snare drum, acoustic guitar and guitar amplifier (2016), You exist and I am an illusion for prepared snare drum, prepared cello and amplification (2016), Cryptic Thingness, stereophonic electroacoustic work with optional multichannel diffusion (2016), Under Construction, interactive installation with musical instruments, stop-motion animation and sound (with María Korol, 2016–17), Music Boards, interactive installation and musical instruments (with Martina Schlusnuss, 2016–17), Thousand Splinters of a Human Eye, music theatre (2017), Subito Dodo for five performers, prepared table, objects, percussion and amplification (2017), Cositas Diminutas for piano, objects and amplification (2017), Night Hunter, installation using clay musical instruments (with María Korol, 2017), Night Hunter, stereophonic electroacoustic work (2017), A message from a world in which we are absent, music performance for double bass, percussion, amplification and electronics (2018), Sí Hay MONSTER (with Julio Zúñiga), happening, installation and music performance for ensemble, audience, amplification and electronics (2018), Zigzag to Callisto, étude for Stratocaster electric guitar (2018), Study in Yellow and Violet for flute, viola, video and electronics (with María Korol, 2019), Leaves in Marble for five performers, two assistants, fixed media and amplification (2019), Silenced, trio for two timpani, assistant and analogue electronics (2019), A Tight Grip for marimba and electronics (2019), A Cow in the Backyard for ensemble, electronics and three-screen stop-motion animation (with María Korol, 2020), Asymptotic Freedom (I) for six prepared electric guitars (2020), Asymptotic Freedom (II) for six prepared electric guitars (2020–21), X is where I am for mezzosoprano, flute, clarinet, accordion, piano, snare drum, violin and cello (2021), On the Shore of Shattered Time for mezzo-soprano, countertenor and bass (2021), Forget Me Not for ensemble and analogue electronics (2022), In the Presence of Absence for ensemble and electronics (2022), Whispering to the Stars for amplified trio: double-bell trumpet, double-bell horn, tuba and ad libitum electronics (2022), Dusk for contrabassoon and trombone (2022), Vicissitudes for double-bell trumpet in a highly reverberant space or with artificial reverberation (2023), Sheltering in Time. Expedition I. for electric guitar and electronics (2023), A Porous Tissue of Timefor five percussionists and electronics (2024), A Sonic Corona to a Song Eclipsed for ensemble and electronics (2024), Amber Blackcurrent Timefor saxophone and electronics (2024), A Hollow Heart full of Holes for five voices and electronics (2024–25), Sheltering in Time. Expedition IIfor electric guitar and electronics (2024–25), Ploop Fiction, promenade music theatre performance for eight characters and audience (2025), No Grid In The Sky for eight trumpets, including six double-bell trumpets in C and two trumpets in F (2025), Tomorrow, I too for the organ of St Peter’s Church in Cologne (2025), The Sounds We Cannot Keep for electric guitar quartet (2026).