Alin Cristian Oprea & Lidia Kalendareva
What’s your artistic background and when did you start composing?
We are composers for ballet, theatre, stage, and film—but above all, we are storytellers through music. Our journey began in childhood when we first put our melodies to paper. Twenty years ago, our paths crossed during piano studies at the University of Music and Theatre in Germany —a meeting that marked the beginning of a deep artistic and human connection. We now experience this connection anew with our little daughter, Elise, who composes her own melodies every day.
For us, composing is not just a profession but an artistic calling. Together, we have created numerous works for orchestras, solo instruments, choirs, and internationally renowned classical, jazz, and pop singers. We have won several international composing competitions and presented our music on some of Europe’s most prestigious concert stages, including the Tonhalle Zürich, and alongside the legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer.
Yet a special passion lies in music for ballet—an art form that uniquely unites movement and sound.
How do you collaborate with the choreographer when creating music for ballet? Tell us about this piece and what inspired you to create it.
With the wonderful choreographer Nadja Saidakova, we share not only a close friendship but also a profound creative collaboration. Together, we developed a ballet for the Taiwan Ballet Company and created the music video FLY, with world-renowned dancer Iana Salenko in the lead role.
Our current work, the ballet Elegia, is a fusion of our compositional voices, inspired by our favorite composers Gustav Mahler and Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is based on three piano pieces from Nostalgie by Lidia Kalendareva, which won first prize at the International Sergei Rachmaninoff Composition Competition. It is complemented by compositions by Alin Cristian Oprea, whose poetic orchestral sounds elevate the emotions of the work to a deeper level. The music is performed by a large symphonic orchestra from Georgia, bringing the compositions to life in full sonic richness.
Listen to an excerpt from Elegia
Photos courtesy of the composers