“Elenora is the owner of a sensitive and intimate pianism, with a clean and passionate technique; between her fingers the cascade of sounds seems to gush like water from streams”
The Italian- American Elenora Pertz is a multi-faceted pianist whose playing has been described as “magnificent, with endless subtlety”.
Elenora has performed extensively in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Festspielhaus Baden Baden, Musée d’Orsay, Oxford Song Festival, Atélier Lyrique de Tourcoing, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, and performed live on France Musique and SWR.
Highlights of her 2025/2026 season include curating a series of recitals under Julian Prégardian’s initiative Clara! at Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Semperoper Dresden etc. with Valerie Eickhoff, post-Winterreise— an eco-feminist perspective on Schubert’s classic song cycle— with performances at Tanglewood Festival in Boston and Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Belgium, song residences at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and International Opera Academy in Ghent, assisting Joana Mallwitz in a new production of “Lohengrin” at Festspielhaus Baden Baden, and the release of her debut solo album TERRA in Spring 2026. She will also perform song recitals alongside Julian Prégardian, Äneas Humm, Bryan Benner, Andrew Munn, Hagar Sharvit, Lila Duffy and Jeeyoung Lim.
Elenora has recorded both art song and chamber music repertoire for labels such as Hännsler Classics and B Records. In her art and projects she strives for both expertise and authenticity, highlighting the universality of classical music for those intimidated by its perceived exclusivity.
As an opera pianist she has worked at the Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Komische Oper Berlin with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Thomas Guggeis and Sir Donald Runnicles. In the 2024/25 season she assisted Esa-Pekka Salonen in the celebrated premiere of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina at the Helsinki Festival and the Easter Festival of the Salzburger Festispiel. She has a long-standing collaboration with KS Brigitte Fassbaender, playing for her Lied masterclasses at the Eppaner Liedsommer and Schleswig-Holstein Festival.
Since the Wintersemester of 2023-24, Elenora leads the art song class (Liedgestaltung) at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, and is also on the voice faculty at the Universität der Künste Berlin. She holds degrees from Vanderbilt University, Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität Wien, and Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. She is an alumnus of the Orsay-Royaumont Lied and Mélodie Academie, a Leeds Lieder, Britten Pears, and Lied Basel young artist, as well as a Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now fellowship scholar. In her bachelor studies at Vanderbilt University, she was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition from the school.
In 2021 Elenora founded the non-profit Lied the Way e.V. whose goal is to network and empower women in the art song community, and to raise awareness of the glass ceiling for female art song pianists in the industry. www.liedtheway.com
Central themes to Elenora’s work are celebrating women and the natural world, and highlighting the cyclical correlations between the two.
A polyglot, Elenora speaks four languages fluently and currently is based between Berlin and Marseille.
