Lera Auerbach (born October 21, 1973) is a Soviet-born Austrian-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Her works have been commissioned and performed by leading artists and ensembles, including Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica, Vadim Gluzman, the SWR and NDR Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Danish Ballet, and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, with performances at major festivals such as Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Bremen Musikfest, and Schleswig-Holstein. Major works include her ballet The Little Mermaid, created for the Royal Danish Ballet, her opera Gogol premiered at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, and her Symphony No. 1 “Chimera.” Another notable work is A Russian Requiem, on Russian Orthodox sacred texts and poetry by Alexander Pushkin, Gavrila Derzhavin, Mikhail Lermontov, and more. Auerbach's a cappella opera The Blind (based on a play by Maurice Maeterlinck) was performed in a new production by John La Bouchardière at Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, New York, in July 2013, throughout which the entire audience was blindfolded. Auerbach stated, "The message is that we are the blind. With all our means of communication, we see each other less and connect less. We have less understanding and compassion for other people. We have this screen between us."

 

Born in Chelyabinsk, Russia, to a family of musicians, Auerbach moved to the United States in 1991 and studied at The Juilliard School with Joseph Kalichstein, Milton Babbitt, and Robert Beaser as a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, later pursuing comparative literature at Columbia University and piano at the Hochschule für Musik Hannover. Drawing on her Russian-Jewish heritage and literary background, Auerbach is known for music that is both intellectually rigorous and emotionally direct. Her honors include the Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Bremer Musikfest Prize, and recognition as one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders; she is also the youngest composer to be represented by Internationale Musikverlage Hans Sikorski.

 

Piano Trio No. 2 'Triptych - This Mirror With Three Faces' (Triptychon - Der Spiegel mit den drei Gesichtern) (2012) unfolds like a ritualistic triptych—each movement representing a "face" of a hinged mirror, evoking the interplay of individuality and unity: are we hearing three facets of a single personality or three distinct characters?

 

In the program notes, Lera Auerbach writes, “I like the idea of exploring the dramatic, ritualistic side of music. In The Mirror With Three Faces, one can look at three different faces or roles of the same person or at three distinct personalities - each with its own face. Each character (i.e. instrument) may be isolated, in conflict, or in harmony with others and itself. This trio explores individuality and ensemble, harmony and conflict, one in three or three in one – that is the ambiguous nature of this work, structured in the form of a triptych.”

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