free-lance composer and pianist, was born 1970 in graz and currently lives in gams (county of styria / austria). she studied classical piano and later – with beat furrer – composition at the university of music and performing arts, graz. harnik started her artistic career both as interpreter of her own works as well as pianist and vocalist in various areas of improvised music. the “repertoire” and it´s extensions in composition and improvisation is her central focus.
in addition to her work as composer she appears as improvisator at various national and international festivals. she works within an electro-acoustic inspired sound-world, using unique preparations and extended techniques. besides her solo performances she is member of many ensembles for improvised music (barcode quartet, plasmic quartet, wild chamber trio, dek, reddeer a.o.) and has performed with numerous internationally recognised representatives of the contemporary jazz scene in europe and abroad such as johannes bauer, thomas lehn, mikołaj trzaska, gianni mimmo, joëlle léandre, isabelle duthoit, jaap blonk, paal nilssen-love, alison blunt, dominic lash, john butcher, ken vandermark, dave rempis, tim daisy, michael zerang, fred lonberg-holm, fay victor, taylor ho bynum, tomas fujiwara, clayton thomas and many more.
harnik has toured in europe, usa, china, australia, brazil and her compositions have been performed regularly at concerts and festivals for contemporary music.
press echoes
“harnik makes sound sculptures in wire. they flex, sometimes break, change with the light, but they always seem to work.” (brian morton, the wire)
“…the piano strings ping and resonate ethereally against the metal objects placed upon them. within the blink of an eye, her instrument shifts from temple bells to bone rattle to the strained yowl of scraped cord. …” (steve mossberg)
“…brittle webernesque shards in elisabeth harnik´s “reframing i”….” (steve smith, new york times)