Committed to shifting the boundaries of harp performance, Jennifer R. Ellis (D.M.A. University of Michigan, M.M. Cleveland Institute of Music, B.M. Oberlin) enjoys taking the harp off its pedestal and using it in unexpected ways. She embraces firsts, premiering over 100 works. She was the first harpist to be a U.S. State Department One Beat Fellow, a cultural diplomacy mission that brings musicians together from around the globe. She was also the first harpist to teach at Nief Norf, the first musician to be named a University of Michigan Engaged Pedagogy Fellow, and the first harpist to attend Bang on a Can, Fresh Inc., and Splice summer festivals. A 2022 LABA Fellow, she received the Alice Chalifoux Prize, two Wildacres Residencies, four Avaloch chamber music residencies, the Rackham Centennial and Graduate fellowships, and the AT&T Foundation scholarship. Her love for innovative new music has led her to serve as a featured performer for the International Harp Festival, Festival of New American Music, Omaha Under the Radar, Sound of Late, Spitting Image Collective, Spark Festival, Piccolo Spoleto Festival and Kerrytown Edgefest. When not playing new music, she collaborates with her orchestral colleagues, performing with San Francisco Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony and has played concerti with ensembles including Colorado Chamber Orchestra, American Wind Symphony Orchestra, and Contra Costa Wind Symphony. Her recordings run the gamut from premieres (Tides by Brian Baumbusch on Other Minds Records, Entertainment Tonight by Steve Horowitz, and multiple tracks by Roscoe Mitchell on Wide Hive Records) to solo improvisation (January Lullaby on Persist) to commissions for harp and saxophone (Launch with Jonathan Hulting-Cohen on Albany Records).

Her scholarship examines new music and community engagement; she has written articles for Harp Column Magazine and The American Harp Journal, where she now serves on the editorial board. Her composition Dance was featured on Lyon and Healy’s Harptacular and her composition Glasswing was featured by the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project. Her work with electroacoustic harp performance and motion sensors was featured in the Contemporary Music Review. A LABA fellowship funded the recording of a new album of her original works for solo harp. Her commitment to helping young composers write for harp has led her to provide workshops for composers at over a dozen universities and summer programs and serve as a harpist for the Gabriela Lena Frank Academy. Her students have been named American Harp Society Young Composer Fellows.

She teaches harp, pedagogy and community engagement at San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she brings her creativity and commitment to innovation from the concert stage into the classroom. She is the founding director of the SFCM Summer Harp Camp and has served as guest harp instructor at other summer programs including MPULSE and Nief Norf. She has also served as the harp instructor at Mills College, Holy Names University PMD, and Harps Etc. Awarded an inaugural University of Michigan Engaged Pedagogy Fellowship, her pedagogy training includes earning a UM CRLT Graduate Teacher Certificate as well as training in eurhythmics pedagogy at CIM. She is an in-demand clinician; she was a featured teacher at the 2017 International Harp Festival and has presented masterclasses across the country at institutions including Interlochen, Boston University, and University of Arizona. Her students have won national awards including the Hampton Roads Harp Competition, the American Harp Society National Competition, and Prodigy International Music Competition. She is serving her second term elected to the national board of the American Harp Society as Pacific Region Director. www.harpellis.com