Lera Auerbach facts for kids

Lera Auerbach (born Valeria Lvovna Averbakh on October 21, 1973) is a talented classical composer, conductor, and concert pianist. She was born in the Soviet Union and now holds Austrian-American citizenship.

Early Life and Musical Journey

Lera Auerbach grew up in Chelyabinsk, a city near the Ural Mountains. Her family was Jewish, and her mother was a piano teacher. Many of Lera's relatives were also musicians, so music was a big part of her life from the start.

Lera began writing her own music when she was very young. She once said that she felt "born to do this," meaning she was meant to create art. In 1991, she got the chance to visit the United States for a concert tour. Even though she didn't speak English, she decided to stay in the country to follow her dreams in music.

She studied at some of the best music schools in New York, including the Juilliard School, where she focused on piano and composition. She also studied literature at Columbia University and earned a piano diploma from a music school in Hannover, Germany.

Amazing Performances

Lera Auerbach made her first big performance at Carnegie Hall in New York in May 2002. She played her own piece, "Suite for Violin, Piano and Orchestra," with famous violinist Gidon Kremer.

As a solo pianist, Lera has performed in many famous places around the world. These include the Great Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in Russia, Tokyo Opera City in Japan, and Lincoln Center in New York. She has also played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Creative Compositions

Lera Auerbach has written many pieces of music that have been performed by top artists, orchestras, choirs, and ballet companies. Some of her music has been played by the Kremerata Baltica orchestra and the Royal Danish Ballet.

One special project was a ballet for The Royal Danish Ballet in 2005. It was created to celebrate the 200th birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, the famous fairy tale writer. Lera wrote the music for a modern version of his classic story, The Little Mermaid. This ballet first showed in April 2005 at the new Copenhagen Opera House.

Her "Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra" was written in 1997. It was first performed in 2006 in Germany. The American premiere happened in 2010 with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2007, her "Symphony No. 1 'Chimera'" was first played by the Düsseldorf Symphony. She also had her "Symphony No. 2 'Requiem for a Poet'" performed that year. Lera's opera called Gogol, based on her own play, was first shown in Vienna in 2011.

Another interesting work is her opera The Blind, which is sung without instruments (a cappella). In 2013, it was performed at Lincoln Center in New York. During this performance, the audience wore blindfolds. Lera explained that the message was about how people are "the blind" in today's world, seeing and connecting less despite all our ways to communicate.

Her piece "24 Preludes for piano" (1999) is considered one of her breakthrough works. Her music for The Little Mermaid ballet is also praised for being very "vivid." More recently, her 2018 piece Labyrinth was called a "formidable" addition to piano music, and her 2019 piece Arctica also received great reviews.

Awards and Recognition

Lera Auerbach has received several important awards for her musical talents. In 2005, she won the Hindemith Prize from the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. She also received the Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk and the Bremer Musikfest Prize in the same year. During this time, she was a composer-in-residence in Bremen, Germany.

She is the youngest composer to be represented by Internationale Musikverlage Hans Sikorski, a major music publisher in Hamburg, Germany.

In 2007, Lera was chosen as a member of the Young Global Leaders forum by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This group recognizes young leaders from around the world who are making a difference.

Main Works

Lera Auerbach has created a wide range of musical pieces.

Orchestral Works

• 2007: Russian Requiem
• 2008: Fragile Solitudes, a piece for string quartet and orchestra
• 2010: Eterniday, for bass drum, celesta, and strings
• 2012: Post Silentium, for orchestra

Concertos

• 1997–98: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 39
• 1997: Double Concerto for violin, piano, and orchestra, Op. 40
• 2000 (revised 2003): Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 56
• 2001: Suite Concertante for violin, piano, and strings, Op. 60
• 2002: Serenade for a Melancholic Sea, for violin, cello, piano, and string orchestra, Op. 68
• 2004: Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 77
• 2005: Dreams and Whispers of Poseidon, a symphonic poem
• 2017: Violin Concerto No. 4 (NYx), performed by Leonidas Kavakos with the New York Philharmonic
• 2021: Cello Concerto, Diary of a Madman

Symphonies

• 2006: Symphony No. 1 Chimera, for large orchestra
• 2006: Symphony No. 2 Requiem for a Poet, for mezzo-soprano, cello, choir, and orchestra
• 2013: Memoria de la Luz, String Symphony No. 1
• 2016: Symphony No. 3 The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie, for violin, choir, and orchestra

Main Choral Works

• 72 Angels, for choir and saxophone quartet
• Goetia 72, in umbra lucis, for choir and string quartet

Recordings

Lera Auerbach's music has been released on many recordings, allowing people all over the world to listen to her compositions. Some of her recordings include:

• Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, op. 69 (2002)
• 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano, Op. 46 (2003)
• Tolstoy's Waltz (2004)
• Auerbach plays Mozart (2005)
• Ballet for a Lonely Violinist, Op. 70 (2005)
• Preludes and Dreams (2006)
• Cetera Desunt, String Quartet No. 3 (2006)
• Flight and Fire (2007)
• Sogno di Stabat Mater (2009)
• Celloquy (2013)
• T'filah (2016)
• 72 Angels for choir and saxophone quartet (2019)
• Milking Darkness (2023)

See also

In Spanish: Lera Auerbach para niños