Sivan Eldar

The work of composer Sivan Eldar has been described as “resolutely of our time” (Opera Forum), “striking in its singularity and finesse” (ResMusica), “with a unique sensitivity to dramaturgy” (Diapason), “exceptionally expressive” (Bachtrack), “a form of trance” (Ôlyrix), “ethereal and transcendent” (Nieuwe Noten), “a contemporary gem” (Les Inrockuptibles), “vividly imagined” (The Boston Globe), and “luxurious and rapturous” (San Francisco Classical Voice).

Sivan’s music has been performed at many of today’s leading festivals and concert halls, including the Venice Biennale, Louvre Museum, Boston Symphony Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet, Maison de la Radio (Festival Présences), Philharmonie Luxembourg (Rainy Days Festival), Musikverein (Wien Modern), DiMenna Center (TIME Festival), Ultraschall Festival, November Music, Bærum Kulturhus, and the opera houses of Lille, Montpellier, Nancy, Marseille, and Basel, among others.

As a collaborator, she works frequently with writers, directors, dancers, and visual artists, and has held residencies through the Fulbright Foundation, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, MacDowell, Camargo Foundation, Villa Albertine, Cité Internationale des Arts, Royaumont Foundation, and Snape Maltings. Her sound installations have been commissioned by and presented at the Pompidou Center, the MahN museum in Neuchâtel, MUSEC in Lugano, Brooklyn Public Library, the Konfrontationen and Impuls festivals in Austria, and Catherine Clark Gallery in San Francisco.

Sivan began her musical education at the age of five, studying classical piano and voice. At 15, she joined the United World College in New Mexico, where she focused on music while becoming involved in environmental and political work. She continued her studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston, earning a BM while studying composition, piano, and ethnomusicology alongside courses in gender studies and ethics. In 2009, she moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of California, Berkeley, studying with Franck Bedrossian, Edmund Campion, Cindy Cox, and Myra Melford, with additional specialization in new media through the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) and the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM). She later moved to Paris to complete IRCAM’s Cursus in Composition and Computer Music under Hèctor Parra (2016–17). Since 2018, she has maintained an ongoing artistic research relationship with IRCAM, working primarily with computer-music designer Augustin Muller and researcher Jean-Louis Giavitto on spatialization and distributed speaker arrays, improvisation, and computer assisted composition and transcription tools.

In addition to her work as a composer, Sivan has taught music theory at UC Berkeley and composition through the John Adams Young Composers Program (2009–16), IlSuono Academy (2023), BE Connect Academy (2024), the Voix Nouvelles Academy at Royaumont (2024), and ManiFeste Academy (2026). From 2019–22, she was composer-in-residence at the Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier, where she led international workshops for composers, writers, and directors, including Paroles et musique with director Ted Huffman. Since 2025, she has served as Professor of Composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

Together with her longtime collaborator, writer Cordelia Lynn, she composed her first opera, Like Flesh, which premiered at the Opéra de Lille in 2022 and received the FEDORA Opera Prize. Following a new production in Basel in 2025, its B-Records book-CD release was selected among Le Monde’s top five albums of the year and received the Académie Charles Cros Critics’ Choice Award.

Her second opera, The Nine Jewelled Deer, created with Peter Sellars, Lauren Groff, Ganavya, and Julie Mehretu, premiered at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2025 and continues with performances in Paris, London, and Berlin. She is currently composing her third opera with Sellars, co-commissioned by the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, alongside a new work for choir and orchestra for the Philharmonie de Paris.

Recent distinctions include appointment as Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2025, a 2024 Opera America Discovery Grant, the 2022–23 Rome Prize at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, and the 2023 New Musical Talent Prize from SACD.

Her music is published by Durand–Universal Music Classical and represented by Karsten Witt Music Management.