Ella Milch-Sheriff

When were you first enchanted by music in your life?

I was always fond of theater and when I started to sing professionally, I sang Kurt Weil. My first opera was influenced by a book I read. It came to me as a sudden enlightenment that I have to make an opera out of this book. (And the Rat laughed by Nava Semel) And so I did. The whole process of composing, rehearsing and the reaction of the audience made me understand that opera and musical drama is actually what I mostly want to do in my life.

Why do people sing?

When people sing, there is an immediate emotional message, even if they sing without any text. Singing gives a physical and emotional expression that speaking cannot give. Sometimes great poems and great texts are remembered because of the music that was composed to them. 

Which role can/should opera play in today's society?

Opera is the ultimate genre in which everything is combined. It’s a total theater and a total musical event and to this you can add any other technology, art, video, and AI.

I think that in the world of today, people will return to opera theaters if we will be clever enough to choose subjects that will intrigue younger generations. 

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Born in

Haifa (Israel) 

Education

Composition at the Academy of Music of Tel Aviv University

Important Works

2005: Opera And the Rat Laughed (Israel and Europa, as well as in Toronto, Canada in 2009)

2010: Opera Baruchs Schweigen (at Staatstheater Braunschweig, as well as in Tel-Aviv, Furth in Germany and Vienna)

2016: Original music to the film Past life (Director: Avi Nesher)

2018: Opera The Banality of Love (Staatstheater Regensburg)

2020: The eternal stranger (commissioned by the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig for the 250th birthday of Beethoven) – later shown at Teatro Massimo in Palermo, at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, with the BBC Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra, with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Stockholm Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony

2021: Abschied (for sopran and orchestra, with the Bochumer Symphoniker, premiered by Steven Sloane)  

Formative collaboration with these artists

There were two musicians who had the most influence on me as a musician.

The first one is my late husband Noam Sheriff, with whom I lived for 36 years until his death. Noam Sheriff was a composer, conductor and mentor to many musicians. He was a great musician. I was never his student but he was, in fact, the musician from whom I have learnt the most. He was the first to see my scores and give an honest professional reaction but even just to sit in his rehearsals, listen with him to music, discussing with him orchestration, was the best lessons I could have ever had.

The second musician who had and still has a great influence on my musical activity is Omer Meir Wellber. Omer first conducted a work of mine in 2016. Since then he, out of trust and belief in my ability, initiated several commissions and performed them all over the world. Omer, a musician with vast knowledge, an intellectual, young, understands the world of today, made me climb, in each piece I composed for him, another step forward. I composed the opera “Alma” knowing he is going to conduct it. This fact alone, so I think, made me achieve musically levels I haven’t touched before. It's a great privilege to be close and work with such great musicians.  

Debut and important works at Volksoper Wien

Debut: Composition Alma (Season 2024/25) 

Significant Honours & Prizes

Lifetime achievement award 2022 by the Israel's composers and authors institute

Israeli Prime-Minister Prize for her compositions

Tel-Aviv „Rosenblume Prize“ for her opera And the Rat Laughed

Website

https://www.ellamilchsheriff.com/

* Use of photograph (© Daniel Sheriff) only for the purpose of current reporting on the Volksoper Wien.