About Ellen. . . 

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As an innovator in the world of chamber music, Ellen is admired for her dynamic and wide-ranging collaborations and the expressive range she brings to ensemble playing. She curates her own series of unique chamber programs as founder and Artistic Director of Constellations Chamber Concerts, and performs regularly with world-renowned musicians and ensembles, such as Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Benjamin Beilman, Soovin Kim, Tessa Lark, Colin Carr, William Sharp, Lucy Shelton, Eduardo Leandro, Aaron Berofsky, Sandbox Percussion, and the icarus Quartet, and was a member of the award-winning Saguaro Piano Trio based in Los Angeles. Her performances have been broadcast on several radio stations including WETA Classical, VPR Classical and WRCJ Detroit. She has appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious music festivals, including Chamber Music Northwest, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, Lake Champlain, Peasmarsh, Chautauqua, Sarasota, and Aspen, as well as Pianofest and the Banff Centre. 

 

Ellen has also been highly engaged in the new music world, collaborating with many composers and making both new solo and chamber works a standard part of her repertoire. She has worked directly with composers David Ludwig, William Bolcom, Stefano Gervasoni, Jörg Widmann, and Brett Dean on many of their works, including several world premieres and recordings. Her passion for new music led to commissions of new works from composers Andy Akiho, Chris Rogerson, and Daniel Pesca through Constellations, Ellen’s role as a founding member of new music ensemble Consortium Ardesia, regular appearances with SUNY Stony Brook’s long-standing Contemporary Chamber Players, close working relationships with faculty composers at Stony Brook, including Perry Goldstein and Sheila Silver, and advocacy for the next generation of young composers.

 

Ellen began her piano studies with Peter Cooper and continued with Logan Skelton at the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude. She received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from SUNY Stony Brook, where she studied under luminary pedagogue Gilbert Kalish. During her academic career at U-M and Stony Brook, Ellen focused intently on the life and music of Béla Bartók, authoring several research papers on Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, Kossuth, and other works, analyzing the impact of biographic and geopolitical events on his musical style. Her doctoral lecture-recital examined “Themes of Unity” in Bartók’s Dance Suite, comparing structural and thematic elements from the Suite to selections from Bartók’s collections of Hungarian folk music. This fascination culminated in the opportunity to perform two recitals of his works at the Bartók Museum in Sânnicolau Mare, Romania, Bartók’s birthplace.

 

In addition to her work as Artistic Director of Constellations, Ellen also held leadership roles at the Mighty Young Composers program, Yellow Barn Festival and Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival and managed the Stony Brook Piano Project concert series from 2010 to 2012. She has given recent masterclasses at the University of Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Central Florida, Davidson College, Covenant College, Washington & Lee University, Universidade de São Paulo, Universidad Nacional Costa Rica, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival. Ellen currently teaches privately in the Washington, D.C. area.

 

Ellen lives in Potomac, Maryland with her husband Tom and daughter Lily. When not performing or teaching, Ellen enjoys oil painting, cooking, and family trips to the C&O Canal National Historic Park.