Biography

About the Composer

Ella Macens is rapidly becoming one of Australia's most celebrated young composers. Frequently commissioned and performed by Australia's leading ensembles and organisations, as well as internationally, her works for orchestras, choirs, chamber music ensembles and soloists draw upon elements of her Latvian heritage and fuse these with her love of popular and classical music. Her language is rooted in a deeply evocative and sensitive musical aesthetic, for which she is becoming well-known in Australia and beyond.

Ella's extensive list of commissions and performances includes collaborations with ensembles and organisations such as the Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmanian, Canberra, and Sydney Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestras; Sydney Youth Orchestra; the Flinders and Goldner string quartets; the Sonic.Art Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble Apex, The Song Company, Sydney Chamber Choir, Gondwana National Choirs, Sydney Children's Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Chamber Choir, State Choir Latvija, the Riga Cathedral Girls' Choir, the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music Chamber Choir, Claire Edwardes, the Australian Ballet, the Pēteris Vasks Fund, the National Carillon Association of Australia, the Sydney Latvian Society, the Canberra International Music Festival, Sydney Festival, the Bowral Autumn Music Festival, Four Winds Festival, the XV Latvian Canadian Song and Dance Festival and the 58th Australian Latvian Arts Festival, among others.

Ella has completed a Bachelor of Music (Composition) with first class honours at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney, and is currently completing a Master of Music (Composition) under the guidance of Professor Matthew Hindson AM. In 2016 she was one of four composers selected to participate in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s inaugural Composing Women program, through which she fostered strong connections with leading Australian ensembles and soloists through a series of workshops and performances of new works.

Her compositions have won awards, including inclusion in ENCORE (2009), the Frank Hutchens Scholarship for Composition in 2012 and the Fine Music FM Young Composer Award (2017) for her first orchestral piece titled FLIGHT.

Ella has held composition residencies with Sydney Youth Orchestra, Sydney Children’s Choir, Trinity Grammar School and International Grammar School. In 2018-19 she was one of four composers selected to participate in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Australian Composers' School. In 2019 she was a featured composer at the Bowral Autumn Music Festival, and in 2020 was selected as the Flinders Quartet's emerging composer in residence. Ella was recently nominated for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's first ever People's Choice Concert for her work 'The Space Between Stars', as nominated by Chief Conductor Simone Young.

Ella's love of music reaches far beyond her work in the composition space. She is a proud music educator, passionate about her roles as Unit of Study Coordinator, Lecturer and Tutor in Composition and Music Theory at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and University of Sydney. Ella is also currently Composer In Residence at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney, where she guides students from years 9-12 in composition.

December, 2022