About Elisabeth Naske

My music results from the desire to do justice to the story I am setting to music. I trace the characters, the frame, the moods shaping the story and develop an appropriate musical expression. In doing so I use the means brought forth by the musical history of the last 500 years and try to develop a stringent, contemporary, and personal musical language supporting the plot. In this way I afford myself the freedom which defines my music. (Elisabeth Naske)

Elisabeth Naske was born in Wiesbaden in 1963 and grew up in Austria. Before beginning studies in composition with Tristan Schulze in 1998, she studied cello at the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Konservatorium Basel, and worked as an orchestral and chamber musician.

As a composer she focuses on music theatre for children and the young. In her entertaining and child-oriented pieces, she leads the audience on adventures into fantasy worlds, where life lessons can be learnt. Naske’s first children’s opera Das kleine Ich bin Ich (2001) was immediately a huge success. Many performances followed after the world premiere at the Konzerthaus Wien, in Berlin, Dortmund, Lucerne, and Cologne. The work, commissioned by Jeunesse Österreich, is based on the book of the same name written by Mira Lobe and deals with the concept of a child’s search for identity.

The world premieres of Die Omama im Apfelbaum (2007) and Das Städtchen Drumherum (2013), both commissioned by Staatsoper Wien, were given in the 'children’s opera tent' on the roof of the opera house. These pieces are also based on works by Mira Lobe. For the Staatsoper Wien, Naske also composed the children's opera Was ist los bei den Enakos? (2019), which addresses the theme of individuality in the fictional kingdom of the Enakos. The opera Die rote Zora (2008), commissioned by the Lucerne Theatre, tells the well-known story of Zora and her band of friends, who courageously fight for justice, and against the suppression and exclusion of the weak. Die feuerrote Friederike (2004) also focuses on a strong outsider. In 2021, Naske wrote Vom Stern, der nicht leuchten konnte for the Salzburg Festival and in 2022 composed Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wissen wollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hat for the Wuppertal Opera in cooperation with the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen.

The ensemble pieces Des Kaisers neue Kleider (2009) for brass quintet and actor and Don Quichotte en famille (2011) for two mimes and four instruments were also inspired by well-known texts. There are many opportunities for children and young people to participate in Naske’s orchestral and ensemble works. Ouroboros (2008), commissioned by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, is about the story of the Creation and may be accompanied by pantomimes, puppet or shadow theatre. The interactive music theatre production Lollo (2015), a co-production of the ZOOM Children's Museum, the Cologne Opera and the Bregenz Festival, is designed as a participatory concert in which the audience can participate as an "orchestra" and can develop the story themselves.

In recent years, Naske has expanded her compositional field to include instrumental settings and works for choir. Geschichten vom Eichhorn (2022) contains seven duets for violin and violoncello which can be performed as a reading with musical accompaniment. Sommerfreunde (2019) is a large-scale orchestral piece in which the author tells a story of flight and emigration from a child's perspective. An example of an a cappella choral work is Fünf Vertonungen nach Gedichten von Christine Lavant (2017). Jubellaut zum Jubiläum (2015) and Zwei Elefanten, die sich gut kannten (2014) are examples of pieces for choir with instrumental accompaniment.

Das kleine Ich bin Ich (2001) released on Cracked Anegg Records and the composer's own production Die Glücksfee (2005) are now available on CD. 

Naske lives in Vienna, where she works as a freelance composer and cellist.