Elena Rykova

Elena Rykova is a versatile composer, interdisciplinary, and performance artist based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her work spans diverse forms of creative expression, often intertwining traditional instruments with found objects, movement, and sound. The scores of her interdisciplinary pieces are characterized by an innovative use of nontraditional notation, having been exhibited in art museums internationally.

Known for her intricate polyphonic textures, Elena’s music explores the fragility and agency of sound under a magnifying lens, often shaped through creative preparation and amplification. This includes instrument bodies acting as acoustic filters for one another. Deeply influenced by the Internal Family Systems (IFS) psychological model, she conceives each sound entity as a multifaceted being with interrelated parts forming complex internal relationships. By engaging with the interplay of time and distance, her work allows these parts to unfold at their own pace, resulting in fluid timelines shaped by acoustic context, performer interaction, and sonic behavior.

Elena’s music invites listeners into immersive worlds, each suggesting its own temporality and spatial logic. These pieces offer an open-ended experience – one that unfolds during the performance and may resonate through memory, inviting reflection on the relationship between sound, space, and time.

In recent years, her projects have focused on the notion of musical space and the geography of sound, often composed for monochrome formations or solo instruments.

Her music has been performed by leading contemporary new music ensembles and presented at renowned festivals worldwide. Past and recent collaborations involve new music ensembles: Musikfabrik, Frames Percussion, Nikel, IEMA, Curious Chamber Players, Mosaik, Nemø, UFA Sextet, Down the Rabbit Hole, Schallfeld, Calefax Reed Quintet, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, line upon line, the Black Page Orchestra, Linea, Opera lab Berlin, London Contemporary Ensemble, Garage, Gaagego, hand werk, Yarn/Wire, Collegium Novum, Ensemble Lunaire, and others.

Her music has been performed at festivals such as: Darmstadt Music Festival, ECLAT, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Klangspuren, MaerzMusik, WIEN-Modern, Klang, Tzlil Meudcan, Ensems, Mixtur, Warsaw autumn, Pré, ManiFeste, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, New Talents Biennale in Cologne, Ultima, Impuls, among others.

Elena holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and is an active presence in the international contemporary music scene as both artist and educator. She is the Artistic Director of the Basel-based ensemble Lemniscate and serves on the programming committee of the Société de Musique Contemporaine in Lausanne (SMC) as well as the board of Swiss Music Edition (SME). In August 2025, she will join the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo as Associate Professor of Composition.