Elena Margarita Kakaliagou is a greek-austrian french horn player and performer, currently based in Berlin. Starting out with piano lessons, she moved on to the French horn at the age of 18. After completing her studies in Athens/GR with Vangelis Skouras, she moved on to KUG-Graz/AT to continue her education under the teaching of Hector McDonald. Instructed by Erja Joukamo-Ampuja, Elena obtained her Master’s degree from Sibelius Academy/FI in 2010 in French horn and chamber music. During her career, Elena has received scholarships from Klangforum, Impuls Academy and Ensemble Modern with teachers like Mike Svoboda and Bill Formann.
Elena’s field of specialization is free improvised and contemporary music, next to classic chamber music. She has performed premiers with ensembles like Ensemble Linea, Schallfeld and KNM Berlin in Festivals like Ultraschall Berlin/DE, Maerz Music/DE, Randspiele/DE, Musica Nova/FI, Lá-bas/FI, Musica/FR, Warsaw Autumn/PL, New Adits/AT, Ultima/NY, Kaleidophon/AT, newadits/AT, Tour de Babel/FR, Sound Live Tokyo/JA ao. She has worked with individual artists as Riikka Innanen, Phill Niblock, James Andean, Ingrid Schmoliner, Katharina Klement, CC Hennix, Robin Hayward, Simon Martin, Matias Guerra, Thomas Noll, to name but a few.
Elena is the co-founder of the Helsinki-based ‘Rank Ensemble’, the Austrian trio ‘PARA’, the Duo Kakaliagou/Schmoliner, the Duo Guerra/Kakaliagou and is a member of Zinc & Copper, Zeitkratzer and the ensemble of CC Hennix.
