Ellen Harrison

Born and raised in Illinois, Ellen Harrison received her doctorate in composition from the University of California, Berkeley, where her teachers included Edwin Dugger, Richard Felciano, Andrew Imbrie and Olly Wilson. Supported by U.C. Berkeley's Prix de Paris, she spent two years studying in Paris, also attending composer workshops at IRCAM. In addition she has studied with Milko Kelemen at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, and with Thomas Frederickson and Paul Zonn at the University of Illinois.

Penned for instrumental and vocal ensembles of various sizes, Harrison's compositions have been inspired by diverse experiences and circumstances. Echoing her evocatively titled movements, her music at times seems to dip into distant and antique sonic realms to portray a series of contrasting moods and atmospheres. At other times the tone is more jocular as she juxtaposes impetuous activity with infernal calm at multiple levels, presenting an extraordinary variety of textures, melodic materials, and expressive gestures.

Harrison's music has been performed in both the United States and Europe, and her works have received numerous honors and awards from organizations such as the American Guild of Organists, the Fromm Music Foundation, IBLA European International Competition for Composers, and the Ohio Arts Council. Last November her prize-winning String Quartet No. 1, "Shifting Landscapes" was performed by the Lydian String Quartet on a Festival of Women Composers at Brandeis University. She is currently writing a septet for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and teaching theory and composition at the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department.