Eliane Aberdam was born in Nancy, France. As a child, she studied the piano, solfege and harmony at the Conservatoire National de Region in Grenoble. She completed her undergraduate studies in composition at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem where her composition teacher was Mark Kopytman. She spent seven years in Jerusalem where she became very familiar with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern traditional music styles, listening to local radio stations, hearing music in the streets at festive ceremonies and cultural events. While studying in Jerusalem, she also had the opportunity to study “Music in the Islam World” with renowned musicologist Amnon Shiloah.

In 1989, she entered the graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania where she studied with George Crumb and obtained her MMus in Composition in 1992. She completed her Ph.D. in Composition at U.C. Berkeley. In 1998-1999, she taught composition, theory and Music technology at the University of Northern Iowa. Her works are performed in Israel, Europe and the United States. She attended music festivals such as The Bartok Seminar in Hungary, June in Buffalo, the Académie d' Été in Paris, and Voix Nouvelles in Royaumont (France). In 1995, she was selected by IRCAM for the Annual Course in electronic music, and the commission of "PaRDeS", an electro-acoustic work for chamber ensemble and electronics. In 2000, the Ensemble InterContemporain (Paris) commissioned and premiered the chamber orchestra piece "Quoi? Ce point". Her Grisailles Vaporeuses piano trio was performed by Trio Casals at Carnegie Hall in February 2020 and by the Kingston Chamber Music Festival (2018) among others.

She has written four operatic works: Tamar and Shahrazad are about domestic violence, and In Our Own Words is about interracial adoption. Her most recent opera, Frontières de sable et de mer, is about the harrowing journeys migrants undertake worldwide to reach a safer place. Eliane Aberdam is inspired by topics such as climate change, social and racial injustices. She recently completed “Doors” a choir cycle about the plight of refugees (based on texts written by refugees/asylum seekers). She recently completed a cantique Kaddishanta, and a violin concerto “In Memoriam” in remembrance of the civilians and soldiers fallen in the Ukrainian war that premiered in Kyiv on June 23, 2023.

She has just completed a guitar solo piece in four movements for the Rhode Island Guitar Festival, commissioned by award winning guitarist Adrian Montero. Other future projects include a 60-minute French operetta for three singers, actresses, harp, violin and bassoon. She received a commission from conductor Dr. Brian Cardany for The American Band (concert in 2027) and a commission to write an octet for the Kingston Chamber Music Festival for their 2028 season (celebrating their 40th anniversary). Recently, she received a commission from oboist Jane Murray for her “End of the Row” ensemble (piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet, and piano) for a performance in fall 2026. Eliane Aberdam has been teaching composition and theory at the University of Rhode Island since 2001.