Elischa Kaminer is a composer, performer and theatre maker working in the intersections of music theatre, sound art, electronic, concert, queer-pop and yiddish musics. His work has been showcased at theatres, concert halls and festivals across Europe, the U.S., Canada and Korea including performances at Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, KORZO Theatre Den Haag, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Schauspiel Hannover, Europâisches Zentrum der Künste Hellerau, Kampnagel Hamburg, The Jewish Museum Frankfurt, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Sophiensäle Berlin, LOFFT Leipzig, Impulsefestival, Favoritenfestival, Wildwechsel Festival, Berlin Peforming Arts festival, Podium Festival, 918 Bathhurst Toronto, the Roy. O. Disney Hall Los Angeles and the Sungmisan Theatre Seoul.
Commissions include works for the Southbank Sinfonia (UK), No Hay Banda (CA), The Rest is Noise (NL), CoMa London (UK), Ensemble Atlantica (CA), NAS Duo (UK), The Arch Sinfonia (UK), the Toronto Creative Music Lab (CA), the Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art (AM) and the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin (DE), as well as several collaborations with choreographers, video, fine artists and performance cllectives including LIGNA (Klasse Kinder!, 2018), CHICKS* freies performancekollektiv (SOFT SKILLS, 2018, GARDEN OF CHICKS*, 2018, LOVE ME HARDER, 2018 and WHAT THE FUCK, 2020), Olivia Hyunsin Kim (Yellow Banana, 2019 and Miss Yellow and Me, 2017), Pinsker und Bernhardt (PAARE SIND FEINDLICHE INSELN) Viola Bittl (Musik mit Viola, 2016), Daliah Ziper (Hotel Kummer, 2016) and Julia Novacek (reisemobil-stellplatz 1230 / wien, 2015).
Since 2021 Elischa Kaminer is Associate Composer with UK based record label and events producer NONCLASSICAL with whom he released the ocean the time the purple the stars feat. cellist Cecilia Bignal in July 2022. From 2016 - 18, he was Associate Composer with Ensemble x.y and co-curator of x.y FM, a monthly radio show on Resonance Extra commited to comissioning and broadcasting new music, sound and radio art.
Most recently, the Goethe Institut Montreal supported a concert tour to Canada, touring with guitarist An Laurence aswell as devising a new hour long staged version of CHANTS D’AMOUR with and for An Laurence which was premiered at The Music Gallery in Toronto in May 2022. A performance residency at the Galeria e Bregedit in July 2022 was supported by the British Council and the Tirana Art Lab.
From 2010-2014 Kaminer studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London followed by postgraduate studies at the Institut für Angewandte Theaterwissenschaften, Gießen supported by the Gerhard C. Starck Stiftung scholarship.
His large scale theatrical works for soloists like Mayah Kadish (La Vaghezza), Joseph Havlat (Ensemble x.y), Alex Paxton (dreammusics), Sara Cubarsi (Musikfabrik) and An-Laurence take on the form of continuously evolving musical and choreographic scores, moulded into and out of the specific performers’ very own artistry, humor, physicality and musicality. Both his solo performance works aswell as ensemble works for the concert hall, exhibition spaces and theatre is often informed by a playful approach and critical relfection on musical and non-musical parameters involved in a live-performance setting. These may include thoughts on the interrelation of sound, choreography and scenography, as well as taking into account political and economic implications (and conditions) of the production and rehearsal process.