Composing Myself returns for 2024 with Wise Music Group CEO Dave Holley and Creative Director Gill Graham speaking to American composer Ellen Reid. In this episode, we learn how both Tennessee and Thailand shaped Ellen’s musical language, what it’s like to win Pulitzer Prize, and delve into the thinking behind her pioneering “GPS-enabled work of public art” Soundwalk.

https://www.ellenreidmusic.com/

Composer Ellen Reid has lived in a lot of places: she grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, went to college in New York City, and spent a couple years in Thailand before settling in California, where she ultimately found her creative voice.

Ellen’s love of sounds and music blossomed early; she was fascinated by the natural world, sang in her church choir, and studied piano and percussion in school. She didn't meet another female composer until she was 25, and never dreamed writing music could be a viable career path.

Ellen is inspired by landscape, emotions and storytelling. She started composing her sophomore year of college, writing a musical and creating sound design for theater and film productions, before “stumbling into opera” working with Thai musicians in Thailand. Her beautifully-wrought music easily creates a sense of place, whether physical or emotional, conjuring sunlit valleys, heartbreak, craggy cliffsides, joy, or bustling cityscapes.

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