“In hybrid sound spaces, instrumental, vocal, electronic, scenic and visual, analog and digital can meet in inhospitable density and intensity. But something is different from many emphatically ‘immersive’ products of contemporary music, which nowadays not infrequently fall prey to a certain superficiality. Something in Hübner’s restless mélange of immediate expressivity and associative reality-blinding seems more urgent, even poetic, than elsewhere. Perhaps this is because ‘theater’ has such great signifi­cance for Hübner, not in the sense of genre and urban institution, but as a principally open space for artistic action and experimentation. And this space is usually not a virtual one, but a space of confronta­tion … a confrontation, admittedly, that works primarily with hints and intangibles.”

– Dirk Wieschollek, nmz 12/2019

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Eloain Lovis Hübner (1993, they/them; formerly known as Ole) studied composition (Hanover, Cologne) and holds a master’s degree from the Giessen Institute for Applied Theater Studies (with Heiner Goebbels et al.). Besides attending several master classes (including Tzlil Meudcan Tel Aviv 2016 with Chaya Czernowin and José María Sánchez-Verdú), Eloain completed a postgraduate program in  Dresden (with Stefan Prins and Manos Tsangaris) and Oslo (with Trond Reinholdtsen et al.) in 2022. Eloain is a member of the paranormal ϕeer group (sound/space-based performances, with Maria Huber & Jakob Boeckh) and The Navidsons (music theater, with Tassilo Tesche & Till Wyler von Ballmoos) and regularly collaborates with artists such as Kapitolina Tsvetkova (scenography/staging), Raphael Jacobs (poetry/dramaturgy/costume) or Johannes Schropp (choreography/performance).

Eloain has been involved in inter/transdisciplinary productions such as The Navidson Records (Munich Biennale / Bern Theatre 2016), Orpheus Moments (Venice Biennale 2017), вепрь и рыба (Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre Moscow 2018), Revolutions Per Minute (Gallus Theater Frankfurt 2019), Ødipus REC. (Gare du Nord Basel / Tojo Theater Bern 2020), Staying Broken (Elbphilharmonie Hamburg 2020), Befriending Ghosts – Digital Hauntings (Volksbühne Berlin Digital / HAU4 @ Performing Arts Festival Berlin 2021), ALICE (Espace K Strasbourg 2021 / Theater Eurodistrict Baden Alsace / Konzerthaus Berlin 2022), Fairytales Of Economic Growth (Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier 2021), Geht dann gleich los (HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden 2021), Loss of Signal (of course I still love you) (MS Stubnitz Hamburg / Next Level Festival for Games Essen 2021 / BAM! Berliner Festival für aktuelles Musiktheater 2022), ϕeerroom (SPARK Festival Cologne / 49h Stimme X Hamburg 2022), and Yes! Yes! Yes! (HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden 2023). Among them are immersive sound/space concepts, an online installation, durationals, music theater for children, a theory opera, participative formats and collaborations with amateurs. The opera opera, opera, opera! revenants and revolutions (libretto: Thomas Köck) was created for the Munich Biennale 2020 but has remained unperformed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eloain is also committed to concert music and has worked with groups such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Decoder Ensemble, NAMES Ensemble, Ensemble Proton Bern, Arditti Quartet, Airborne Extended, as well as with numerous soloists. Vocal music plays a central role; for instance, in 2023 Eloain realizes several projects with AuditivVokal Dresden as composer in residence. Previous and planned CD projects include participation in the Decoder Ensemble’s BIG DATA album (Wergo, 2019) and trombonist Mikael Rudolfsson’s new solo album (2023), as well as a portrait album in the Edition Zeitgenössische Musik of the Deutscher Musikrat (Wergo, 2024/25). Eloain’s complete works are published exclusively by Edition Juliane Klein, Berlin.

Since 2018 Eloain has held teaching positions for composition and interdisciplinary practice at the University of Giessen and the Academy of Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg. As tutor at the Dresden College of Music, they led two performance projects and gave main subject lessons in composition. Eloain has been curator of the Musik 21 Festival in Lower Saxony since 2021 and is a spokesperson of the German-wide Netzwerk Freies Musiktheater. Awards and grants include the 63rd Composition Prize of the Federal State Capital of Stuttgart 2018, a commission prize at the composition competition of the impuls Festival Graz 2019, a residency scholarship to the Villa Aurora Los Angeles 2019, a federal scholarship to the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris 2019/20, the Bremen Composers Prize of the Landesmusikrat Bremen 2020, a residency scholarship to Künstlerhof Schreyahn 2022/23, the Deutscher Musikautor*innenpreis 2022, and the 1st Prize in the International Composition Competition of the City of Homburg 2023.

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Learn more in this portrait video produced in 2021 by the AVL Cultural Foundation: