Download Elena Ruehr is a composer whose music has been called

Elena Ruehr is a composer whose music has been called “unspeakably gorgeous” (Gramophone
Magazine) “stunning” (the Washington Examiner) “a rare gift” (The Boston Globe) “magical”
(Audiophile Audition) and “elegant, top-shelf listening” (Classical Voice of New England) and
she is a “composer to watch” (Opera News) who writes “music with heart and a forceful sense of
character and expression.” (The Washington Post) Available recordings of Dr. Ruehr’s music
include How She Danced: String Quartets of Elena Ruehr (Cypress String Quartet), Toussaint
Before the Spirits (Arsis), Jane Wang considers the Dragonfly (Albany), and Shimmer (Albany).
She was composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project from 2000-2005, and
the orchestra premiered her pieces Shimmer, Sky Above Clouds and Ladder to the Moon, as well
as her acclaimed opera Toussaint Before the Spirits. Three of her six string quartets were
commissioned by the Cypress String Quartet, and they have also been performed by the Biava,
Borromeo, Lark and Shanghai String Quartets. Through her long time collaboration with
baritone Stephen Salters, she has become known for her vocal writing based on work of living
writers including Elizabeth Alexander, Louise Glück, Laura Harrington, Marta Rainer, Madison
Smart Bell, and Elizabeth Spires. In 2008 she was a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute,
where she wrote her cantata based on Louise Glück’s National Book Award finalist in
poetry, Averno.