My journey in composing for theatre began long ago in the USSR, creating music for both adult and children’s productions. Over the years, my work has evolved, bringing stories to life on stage and screen. Below are some examples of my more recent projects.
Your music is remarkably cinematic, always carrying a deep sense of dramaturgy. After all, dramaturgy is, first and foremost, the movement of a character’s soul—a constant transition from one state to another.
Film “Princess’s War”
Irena, your music is a great contribution to the success of the film.
A few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a war is going on in Nagorno-Karabakh and Chechnya, refugees are looking for shelter in small towns. A small town Rosrentgen is divided between its two ruling adolescent gangs. Slavic girl nicknamed Princess and Karen, an Armenian boy fall in love. They are forced to fight their rights and their developed feelings for one another in the atmosphere filled with hate, cruelty and most significantly of all, religious and ethnic intolerance.
- Script: Vladimir Alenikov, Denis Rodimin
- Camera: Maksim Osadchiy
- Design: Fyodor Savelyev
- Music: Irena Scalerica
- Director: Vladimir Alenikov
- 🏆 Prize at XXII International Children’s Film Festival “Alye parussa” (“Scarlet Sails”) in Artek (Crimea)
- 🏆 Prize at XVIII All-Russian Festival of Visual Arts in Orlyonok (Crimea)
- 🏆 Special Jury Prize at IV International Film Festival “Light For the World” in Yaroslavl (Russia)
- 🏆 Winner at XX Film Festival of Russian cinema in Cologne (Germany)
- 🏆 Winner at XIX Samara International Children Film Festival (Russia)
- 🏆 Winner at “Gifts of the Magi” Barcelona International Children’s and Youth Film Festival (Spain)
- 🏆 Special Jury Prize at XVII “Dark Nights” International Film Festival/Just film International Film Festival (division of films for children and youth) (Estonia)
- 🏆 Prize at VII FILEM’ON International Children’s Film Festival (Belgium )
- 🏆 Prize at IV “KinoMay” Saint-Petersburg Children’s and Youth Film Festival (Russia)
- 🏆 Prize at Amur Autumn Festival of Cinema and Theater (Russia)
- 🏆 Prize at Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival (Armenia)
Film “Adventure”
Irena, your music brings something otherworldly to the film’s atmosphere. It transforms the film for the better, and for that, I am truly grateful to you.
An Almaty security guard becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman he spies across the road from his workplace every night in Adventure, which, unlike what the title might suggest, is a slender and hushed adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s oft-filmed short story “White Nights.” This third feature from Kazakh director Nariman Turebayev should appeal to fans of deliberately paced foreign films.
Read the Hollywood Reporter review
Production: Kazakhfilm, Arizona
Cast: Azamat Nigmanov, Aynur Niyazova
Writer-director: Nariman Turebayev, screenplay based on the short story “White Nights” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Producers: Anna Kachko, Guillaume de Seille
Composer: Irena Scalerica
Music for Theatrical Productions
Musical Stoked!
In development
The 14-year-old Esther has one great passion: unicycling. But not in a circus. No, Esther wants to compete in championships, preferably the world championships. Unfortunately, not everyone is equally enthusiastic about her ambitions. Her mother thinks all those medals mean nothing. And people who automatically associate a unicycle with the circus don’t make things any easier for Esther. She’s getting completely fed up with all the prejudices.
Theatrical Play A Doll’s House
Music for a classical production of Henrik Ibsen’s world-famous theatre play ‘A Doll’s House’. Produced in The Netherlands by Meisner Theatre Academy in ‘s Hertogenbosch.
Your music for A Doll's House is touching, beautiful and truly marvelous! Fantastic work!
Musical Theatrical Play Arum dem Fayer
Music for multilingual story of survival, resilience, and identity through 20 songs. The main character fled the USSR at 17 to chase her dream in the Netherlands, where she found freedom, theater, and a connection to her hidden past. Based on a true story.
Theatrical Play Oscar and the Lady in PInk
Music for a theatrical play based on a famous book by French-Belgian writer Eric Emmanuel Schmidt ‘Oscar and the Lady in Pink’ by Dutch-Israeli theatre maker Ksenia Marasanova.