Elena Rykova is a composer, interdisciplinary and visual artist.
In my music, I want to create spaces, where people - musicians and audience - could meet and experience sonic and visual worlds, which I imagine and share with them, together. It is very important for me to create art objects that could communicate the essence of those worlds by themselves, that's why in my scores I invent my own visual language, the blend of drawings and musical notation, which is unique for each new piece. I seek for establishment of personal relations between musicians and my pieces. I want the one who looks at the score to inhibit the imaginary world and live in it rather than simply read the score. In this way, I believe, communication with the listener transcends to another realm of existential experience.
My motivation to make art is
to inspire each single person, including myself, to explore our unknown selves by travelling in imagination far beyond our habitual thinking routes, discovering new facets inside, which once were probably forgotten, and always keeping curiosity aware and ready to welcome all upcoming unpredictabilities… Elena Rykova is currently a PhD Candidate at Harvard University.
Her music has been performed by renowned ensembles in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the USA. Among honors are: RheinSilber Award at New Talents Biennale in Cologne, Germany (2016), Berlin Scholarhip of Academy of Arts in Berlin (2016), Frederic Mompou International Award in Barcelona (2015), finalist of the biggest independent national Russian award in contemporary art «Kandindky Prize» (2014), finalist of Gaudeamus Prize in the Netherlands (2013) and others.
