Eliane Aberdam

Eliane Aberdam was born in Nancy, France. She studied piano and theory at the Conservatoire National de Region in Grenoble (1972-1981). She completed her undergraduate studies in composition at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, Israel, where she studied with Mark Kopytman. In 1989, she entered the graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania where she studied with George Crumb, and obtained her master’s degree in 1992. She completed her Ph.D. in Composition at U.C. Berkeley. In 1998-1999, she taught composition, theory, and music technology at the University of Northern Iowa. Her works are performed in Israel, Europe, and the United States. She attended music festivals such as The Bartók Seminar in Hungary (1990), June in Buffalo (1994), the Académie d’Été in Paris (1995), and Voix Nouvelles in Royaumont, France (1996). In 1995, she was selected by IRCAM (Institute of Research & Coordination Acoustic/Music) for the Annual Course in electronic music, and for the commission of PaRDeS, an electro-acoustic work for chamber ensemble and electronics. In 2000, the Ensemble Inter-Contemporain (Paris) commissioned and premiered the chamber orchestra piece Quoi? Ce point after Primo Levi’s novel The Periodic Table.

In 2006, she composed Tamar, an opera in 3 acts (libretto by Maurya Simon based on the biblical story of Tamar and Amnon). The opera was premiered at URI in 2007. Aberdam writes for a wide variety of styles and genres: electronics, orchestral, chamber, chorus, and solo. Her recent works and commissions include a piece for soprano and electronics, The Seven Deadly Sins (2010), an orchestra piece, Les Bons Augures (2011), Zamarine, a piece for wind ensemble (2012), and a piece for soprano, harp, and violin, Deux Poèmes Océaniques (2012). She composed A Demon in my View for the Aurea Ensemble (2013) and Figurines for the Earplay Ensemble in summer 2014 (performed in San Francisco in January 2015). In August 2015, Shahrazad for harp, singer, and actress (an operatic play) premiered in Pittsburgh PA.

During her sabbatical in France (2015-2016) she was a guest at ACROE (Institut polytechnique of Grenoble), where she worked with Genesis — a Sound-Synthesis-by-Physical-Models program – and composed a piano and electronic piece for Disklavier, Encounter, which was recorded by pianist Eric Ferrand N’Kaoua in 2016. She recently completed a percussion quartet, a trio (flute, cello, clarinet), and Otohime, a concerto for double bass and orchestra that won second prize in the Bass Lucca 2018 competition of Donne in Musica and was premiered in Chisinau by the National Orchestra of Moldova (September 2019). She is now composing a chamber opera, In Our Own Voices, on the topic on interracial adoption, premiering on November 2, 2019. She has been teaching composition, theory, orchestration, form and analysis, electronic music, ear-training, counterpoint, and modern era at the University of Rhode Island since 2001.