Elena Mendoza was born in 1973 in Seville, Spain, where she studied German language and literature. She then studied piano and composition with Teresa Catalán in Saragossa, John Van Buren in Augsburg, Manfred Trojahn in Düsseldorf, and Hanspeter Kyburz in Berlin. Today she lives and works in Berlin. Mendoza is particularly interested in problems of timbre and dramaturgy in instrumental and vocal music. She attaches special importance to music theatre and the musical possibilities of language. In this respect, her music theater piece Niebla, written and staged in close cooperation with the director Matthias Rebstock in 2007, is of seminal importance. It was produced at the Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden Hellerau, the Konzerthaus Berlin, and musicadhoy (Madrid). She has worked with performers of the stature of ensemble recherche, Klangforum Wien, ensemble mosaik, Ensemble Modern, Taller Sonoro, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Ascolta, the Nuernberg Opera, the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others. Her music is performed at such festivals as Ars Musica (Brussels), the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Eclat, Ultraschall, MaerzMusik, Festival de Música Comtemporánea de Alicante, the Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik, Nous Sons (Barcelona), Acanthes (Metz), and the Steirischer Herbst (Graz). Among her many awards are a fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, the Spanish Premio Nacional 2010 and the Musikförderpreis Salzburg 2011. Elena Mendoza works actively in communicating and disseminating new musical languages, for example by holding workshops in composition and contemporary music listening. Since October 2007, she teaches composition and experimental music at the Berlin University of the Arts. Instrumental chamber music from Elena Mendoza can be heard on a CD released by Kairos in 2008. Since 2009, her scores have been published by Edition Peters.