Excess of Being

Lera is a Russian-American poet, composer, musician and visual artist. She has published more than 100 works for opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber music, and performs as a concert pianist throughout the world. Her work is championed by leading artists, conductors, stage directors and choreographers, with recent works staged by the San Francisco Ballet, Stanislavsky Theater, Hamburg Opera, Theatre an der Wein, National Ballet of China, Finnish National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Semperoper and Staatskapelle Dresden, and New York’s Lincoln Center. The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, selected Lera in 2007 as a Young Global Leader and in 2014 as a Cultural Leader, where she lectured on borderless creativity. In Excess of Being, she revitalizes the form of aphorisms. Her writing is provocative, dark, ironic and humorous, perceptively dealing with life’s kaleidoscopic questions. Excess of Being is her first book published in English.

For the Russian-American artist Lera Auerbach, the aphorism provides a unique vehicle through which to address life’s most provocative questions. Her writing is dark, ironic and humorous, perceptively dealing with the “excess” of existence and what it means to be human.

Auerbach is well known internationally; her music is championed by the world’s leading conductors, performers, stage directors and choreographers. She regularly appears as a concert pianist with—and has been a composer-in-residence for many of today’s top music festivals and orchestras. Her published catalogue includes more than 120 works of opera, ballet, symphonic and chamber music.

Gerard Depardieu and Evgeny Kissin are among the artists reciting from her three published volumes of poetry in Russian. She is a regular contributor to the Best American Poetry blog, was named Poet of the Year in 1996 by the International Pushkin Society in New York, and has penned several opera libretti. The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, selected Auerbach as a Young Global Leader in 2007, and then as a Cultural Leader in 2014, inviting her to give presentations and discussions on the topic of borderless creativity.