Natacha Diels

Natacha Diels’ work combines choreographed movement, video animation, instrumental practice, and cynical play to create worlds of curiosity and unease. Recent work includes Papillon and the Dancing Cranes, for construction cranes and giant butterfly (2018/2021), a solo project entitled Somewhere Beautiful (2022), and Beautiful Trouble, an ongoing ‘opera’ for string quartet with the JACK quartet. Forthcoming is a solo album (Carrier Records 2024), a new ‘opera’ for Festival Nueva Opera Buenos Aires (2024), and a work for headphoned audience with La Muse en Circuit for Ensemble Contrechamps (2025). With a focus on collage, collaboration, and the ritual of life as art, Natacha’s compositions have been described as “a fairy tale for a fractured world” (Music We Care About) and “the liveliest music of the evening” (LA Review of Books). Natacha is a founding member of the composer/performer collective Ensemble Pamplemousse (est. 2003).

Notable commissions include those from the Borealis Festival for Papillon and the Dancing Cranes (2018); the Fromm Foundation for Talea Ensemble (2022); Darmstadt International Summer Institute (2021); the Barlow Foundation for JACK Quartet (2022); and Ensemble Contrechamps for Festival Archipel (2025). Natacha’s work has been performed globally by Ensemble Adapter, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Nadar Ensemble, hand werk, Ensemble Decoder, TAK Ensemble, Quatuor Impact, JACK Quartet; and soloists Jay Campbell, Laura Cocks, Samuel Favre, Ross Karre, Rane Moore, and Charlotte Mundy, among others. She has also created several short films and music videos which have been screened in Denmark, NYC, Chicago, Budapest, and Hungary.

Natacha holds degrees in performance, digital media, and composition from New York University and Columbia University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of composition at the University of Pennsylvania.