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Photo: Gerald Geerink

Kirsten Milenko (b.1993) is an Australian composer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Milenko works with vocal, instrumental and electronic media to express music as environmental phenomena. Working closely with movement, her music embodies a constant synergy between sound and motion to capture perceptions of space.

In March 2017, Milenko performed her music in Germany for a multidisciplinary project with composer/choreography Hayley Page in the Hamburg Ballet's Young Choreographer's Series. In July the same year, Ex Aere premiered at City Recital Hall in Sydney with soprano Sylvie Woods and double bassist Jacques Emery - which has since developed into her debut album Caeli (releasing 2019).

In August 2017, she moved to Denmark to study as a visiting student at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She has since continued her studies with Niels Rosing-Schow and Simon Løffler and will graduate from the Master's programme in 2020. From her previous studies, Milenko is a recipient of the 2015 Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize awarded by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the 2018 John Amis Award, Dartington International Summer School.

Premieres of her works have been given by leading ensembles such as: DR VokalEnsembelt, Esbjerg Ensemble, E-Mex Ensemble, Scandinavian Guitar Duo, K!Art, Ensemblage, and the SCM Wind Symphony. She has also worked with a number of renowned soloists and conductors including: Jean Thorel, John P. Lynch, Kalle Hakosalo, Bartłomiej Sutt, Louise Mcclelland Jacobsen, Emma Ilona Mustaniemi. Her music has been performed in Denmark, Spain, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, the UK and Australia.

Milenko has been selected for the Roche Young 2021 commission by Wolfgang Rihm, Artistic Director of the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Kirsten Milenko — current to September 2019