The fact that Elina Albach not only began playing the harpsichord at the age of five, but also grew up in a family with a strong affinity for music and a background in early music as well as church music, with which she was familiar from an early age, had far-reaching consequences. Perhaps something has to be so deeply ingrained, so familiar and so connected that it can be thought of in a completely new and different way, with risk: not only is Albach in demand internationally today as a harpsichordist and has received many awards, but the fluid ensemble Continuum, which she conceived, is considered the nucleus of an approach to early music that has never been heard before.
Elina Albach, born in 1990, studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Prof. Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, led various ensembles, such as the Ensemble Reflektor, the Vocalconsort Berlin, the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, and taught chamber music, basso continuo and harpsichord at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden and the Detmold University of Music. She has performed in various ensembles and solo at numerous renowned festivals and in legendary venues on four continents. Among her many scholarships, the most recent was the #bebeethoven Fellowship from Podium Esslingen and the German Federal Cultural Foundation, which enabled young artists to find new ways of performing, interpreting and composing from 2017 to 2021. During this time, Continuum created projects that explored the relevance of early music, spectacularly interweaving early and contemporary music with the development of a new repertoire for baroque instruments and innovative concert designs. In 2019, she and two colleagues received the OPUS Klassik award for the most innovative concert of the year, a trio version of Bach's St John Passion (produced by Podium Esslingen). In 2022, Elina Albach was invited to curate and design the residency "Younger than Jesus" with four concerts at the renowned MA Festival in Bruges.
She is currently working on making canonised works of the Baroque era more accessible through condensation in small ensembles and new arrangements with her ensemble Continuum. She commutes with her small family and the harpsichord between Berlin and Bonn and many other concert venues and loves to read beautifully illustrated children's books to her child.