A Compositional Life in Time: The Recent Operas of Elena Kats-Chernin

Time, in its many dimensions, plays a controlling role in musical life, none more so than in Elena Kats-Chernin’s output. Her career spans decades of output, including music for dance, theatre, digital media, and the concert stage. In late 2019 Natalie Williams and Kats-Chernin spoke about two of her recent works in opera composition, Whiteley for Opera Australia, and Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer, a children’s opera for the Komische Oper, Berlin. The conversation covers her life and work in Germany, Australia, and the many worlds in between. The discussion reveals a composer deeply in touch with her artistic relationships, who crafts and shapes time as a creator, producer, and listener, as she reflects on the challenges and joys of creative life. The interview highlights Kats-Chernin’s recent works and her unique relationship with musical time, from small note-to-note decisions to the larger considerations of a project timeline and the benefit of decades spent within the field. The passion for her art is evident in every anecdote and this candid interview is a record of explorations of Kats-Chernin’s musical life, in time.