Ellen Reid

Ellen Reid is an American composer and sound artist whose breadth of work spans opera, sound design, film scoring, avant-pop, ensemble, and choral writing. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her opera, p r i s m in 2019. Reid’s orchestral work has been performed by the New York PhilharmonicBoston Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many others.

Reid has composed crackling, lyrical film scores in collaboration with A24, Amazon Studios, and the Duplass Brothers Productions. Reid recently released the album Isomonstrosity, an avant-pop collaboration with artists Johan Lenox and Yuga Cohler that paired the modern production aesthetics of hip-hop with vocal chamber music.

In 2016, Reid co-founded Luna Composition Lab with composer Missy Mazzoli, an organization that provides mentorship, education, and resources for young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers. It is the only initiative of its kind in the United States.

Born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1983, Ellen Reid received her BFA from Columbia University and her MA from California Institute of the Arts. Reid serves as the Contemporary Music Chair of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and she is currently the first composer to be in residence with both Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Concert Hall and Concertgebouw Orchestra simultaneously. She continues to live and work in New York City and Los Angeles.

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