Elena Kiral

Kyrgyz pianist and composer of Czech descent, laureate of numerous international competitions and teacher at the International Conservatory in Prague.

She was born in 1984 in Kyrgyzstan, where her grandfather had moved in the 1920s as a member of the Czechoslovak cooperative Interhelpo, which contributed to the development of industry and education in the city of Frunze (today’s Bishkek). She returned to Prague in 2012 as a member of the Czech expatriate community in order to reconnect with her family’s Czech roots.

Elena is a laureate of several composition and piano competitions (including a special first prize for a symphony in an international composers’ competition in Armenia) and has received honours from the presidents of the Kyrgyz Republic for her contribution to culture.

In Kyrgyzstan she also taught as a professor in the Composition Department of the Kyrgyz National Conservatory.

In the Czech Republic she continues as a professor and secretary of the Required Piano Department at the International Conservatory in Prague and teaches at the MusicArt music school.

She regularly presents her new works at the Czech festival Days of Contemporary Music, where pieces such as The Apple, The Black Man and Fantasy of 1001 Nights have been performed. She is a member of the Society of Czech Composers (AHUV).

She collaborates with Prague-based orchestras such as Prague POP Symphonics and the Film Symphony Orchestra, and with soloists of the National Theatre including Michaela Zajmi, Oleg Kruglov and Tachira Menaždinová. Her work and activities are regularly covered in the Czech media, including the portal Opera Plus.