Sivan Cohen Elias

Sivan Cohen Elias, a 2024 McKnight Composer Fellow with the American Composers Forum, is an electroacoustic composer and improviser. Her work often combines modified musical instruments, objects, fixed media and live electronics, while exploring social themes of failure, entanglement and illusion. As noted by The New York Times, she often “deconstructs the instruments themselves” to establish extended sonic environments consisting of multi-layered textures and timbres.

Cohen Elias’ work spans the United States, Europe and Asia, where she has received various prestigious international awards, including the Harvard Fromm Foundation commission, winner of the 2016 International Staatstheater Darmstadt Musical Theatre Composition Competition and Akademie Schloss Solitude fellowship (Stuttgart). Her works have been performed by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, soundinitiative, Jack Quartet, Talea Ensemble and Distractfold, among many others.

She received her PhD from Harvard University and post-graduate studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Since 2022, she has been the Assistant Professor of Composition / Music Technology at the University of Minnesota School of Music. Innova Recordings released her latest album “Melting Planets” in 2024.