Chaya Czernowin was born and raised in Israel. Through her studies with Abel Ehrlich, Brian Ferneyhough, Dieter Schnebel and Roger Reynolds as her dissertation mentor and various scholarships and prizes, Czernowin has been able to focus intently on refining her unique musical language since the age of twenty-five, living in such diverse regions as Germany, Japan, the United States and Austria.

In 2000 her Opera Pnima...ins innere, based on David Grossman's 'Momik', from the book "See under: love" was premiered at the Munich Bienniale and won her much critical acclaim. A non-linear experience, sonically and emotionally intense in its non-operatic sparseness, Pnima deals with the question of the impossibility of communicating an ungraspable traumatic experience, in this case that of the Jewish holocaust. Pnima was chosen 'best première of the year' by 'Opernwelt' and won the Bavarian Theatre Award. Pnima will be presented in a new production by the Stuttgarter Staatsoper in 2009/10.

In 2003 her piece Afatsim was performed by the British group Expose in their "cutting edge" tour in England, ending with a performance at Huddersfield Festival.

Winter Songs were composed in 2003/4. The first version : "Pending Light" was a commission of IRCAM for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and is now a part of IRCAM repertory. The second version "Stones" was commissioned by Ensemble Modern; the third version "Roots" by Sospeso, New York. The three versions of Winter Songs have been performed by 9 different ensembles in the US, in Japan and in Europe since their premiere.

Among her recent awards are the Förderpreis (Supporting Award) of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 2003, and in 2004 the Award of the Rockefeller Foundation for two portrait concerts in New York. Czernowin also received a grant from musica viva supporting the DVD release of Pnima…ins innere. A few SWR experimental Studio awards have been granted for the completion of the triptych Maim.

Czernowin taught composition at the Yoshiro Irino Institute, JML, Tokyo, Japan, at the Darmstadt Summer Courses (1990-1998, she won the Kranichstein Music Prize 1992), and led numerous master classes. During 1997-2006 she was professor of composition at the University of California, San Diego. From the year 2006/7 she is a composition professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Guest professorships include 2005-6 winter semester at Harvard University and residencies at Gothenborg, Sweden March 2005 and at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, in March 2007. Since 2003 she has been directing the biennial International Summer Academy for Young Composers at Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany.

Her music has been performed at more than 30 festivals all over the world, including most festivals for new music in Europe. In 2004 Czernowin has been appointed first composer-in-residence at Hellerau, European center for the arts, Dresden, and visiting composer of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. In 2005 she was composer in residence at the Salzburg Festival, where her opera Adama, a compository supplement for Mozart's opera Zaïde was commissioned and premiered in August 2006. The opera Zaïde
Adama was broadcast on 3Sat TV all over Europe, and has beenstaged at Stadttheater Basel, Switzerland (where Czernowin is in residence in 2007). Further theatres to feature this production include Montpellier, France, and new productions are scheduled in Bremen, Germany, and Sweden in 2009/10.

Other recent projects include Pilgerfahrten, a commission by The European Center for the Arts, Hellerau, for the celebration of 800 years anniversary of the city of Dresden. The hour long piece confronting text by Tove Jansson and Stephen George was written for the Kreuzchor (a boy’s choir with 125 members) and a 20 player ensemble (Ensemble Courage). It was premiered in October 2006 at Hellerau, broadcast at MDR and will be performed again at a musica viva concert in Munich, February 2008.

In March 2007 her Triptych Maim ("Water") for a large orchestra, quintet of soloists and tubax as a main soloist (with live electronics) has been performed at festival MaerzMusik in Berlin with Johannes Kalitzke conducting the Konzerthausorchester, as well as by Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Torino, Italy in January 2008. This piece has won a substantial support from Réseau Varèse.

For 2008, a whole evening project involving Czernowin and 6 of her former students from UCSD is planed. This whole evening collaborative piece is composed over 2 years with the group meeting a few time for extended residencies together with the group Ascolta, who will perform the piece. This project won a generous grant from Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Cultural Fund of the Federal Republic of Germany). The collaborative piece will be premiered at Donaueschingen festival 2008, in Stuttgart, Vienna (Wien Modern), and in additional places.

Several solo CDs with her works have been released by Mode Records, New York (www.mode-records.com) including a recently released DVD of Pnima...ins innere. The first part of the triptych Maim has been released on Col Legno. Zaïde
Adama has been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon in November 2006.