Elena Rykova

A composer, interdisciplinary and performance artist, Elena Rykova explores a wide variety of genres in music and visual art. She brings together instruments and found objects, extending one through another and creating performative musical situations, often with a strong visual aspect. Her scores are characterised by an innovative use of non-traditional notation, having been exhibited in art museums internationally. 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. Her current interests lie in the spatial aspect of sound and virtual sonic spaces.

Past and recent collaborations involve: Ensemble Musikfabrik, Frames Percussion, UFA Sextet, Nikel, IEMA, Curious Chamber Players, Mosaik, Nemø, Down the Rabbit Hole, Schallfeld, Calefax Reed Quintet, Neue Vocalsolisten, line upon line, the Black Page Orchestra, Opera lab Berlin, London Contemporary Ensemble, Garage, hand werk, among others.

Her music has been performed at festivals such as Darmstadt Summer Course, ECLAT (Stuttgart), Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Klangspuren (Schwaz), Wien Modern, Klang (Copenhagen), Tzlil Meudcan (Tel Aviv), Ensems (Valencia), mixture (Barcelona), Warsaw Autumn, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, new talents – biennale cologne, Ultima (Oslo), IMPULS Festival and others.

She was an invited professor of composition at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC), CIEL Academy, mixtur, and a lecturer at Bath Spa University, Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, Conservatori Superior de Música de València, and others. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she also worked as a teaching assistant in acoustic and electroacoustic composition courses.
Rykova is currently based in Lausanne, Switzerland. She serves on the programmation committee of Société de Musique Contemporaine (SMC) and as a board member of Suisse Music Edition (SME). Since August 2024 Rykova has taken on the role of Artistic Director for the Basel-based ensemble Lemniscate, further solidifying her commitment to shaping the future of new music.