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. Die rote Zora (2008) 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.

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.

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