ISABELLA GELLIS




composer




LIST OF WORKS 


send me an email if you would like to see any scores [or hear any recordings that aren’t online]


🎹


SONATA / piano / 8’ / 2018 / ︎︎
a sort of microsonata

SLOW DAY NO. 5 / piano / 2’ / 2020 /︎/ ︎︎/
a song without words, intentionally very playable

THE DISSOLUTE SOCIETY COMPRISED OF ALL SORTS / piano / 35’ / 2021 / ︎
a suite based on Biber’s Battalia, for Joseph Havlat, premiered at Dartington


🎤


FALLING UP SONGS / soprano, vln, bcl, pft / 3’ / 2016 / ︎
these are good fun, secret text, send me a message if you want to find out

MONTREAL SONGS /medium voice, piano / 14’ / 2021 / ︎
three folk song arrangements in French, English and Yiddish

DEAD HORSES / solo voice  / 12’ / 2021 / ︎︎
lots of good words in this, text by me, RAM200 commission, for Lotte Betts-Dean

I WISH I COULD SPEAK TO YOU / medium-high voice, piano / 3’ / 2021
sweet and sad, text by Dan Sociu

HOW TO SING AND PLAY THE HARP / soprano, harp / 11’ / 2022 / ︎
quite theatrical, some text by Dan Sociu in the middle, lots of syllables either side

 
🎭️


FOR PEACE AND COUNTRY [CHAMBER OPERA] / mezzo-soprano + ebcl, cl, bcl, a-sax, bn, tr, tuba, vl, vlc, pft / 16’ / 2018 / ︎︎
libretto from a video my sister made when she was 8, the singer [Lotte Betts-Dean] plays 11 different characters (all stuffed toys)

DUMFRIES AND THE EEL [KIDS’ MUSIC] / narrator + cl, tpt, tuba, vl, pft [optional kalimba] / 6’ /2022
a suite, based on work done with students from Heycroft Primary School in Southend, for Billy’s Band

WITH GLORY AND HIS SCISSORS GLINTING / countertenor, bcl, vcl, perc /  7’ / 2022
a “barbershopera”, text from clickhole.com, for Shadwell Opera, recorded in binaural audio


🎺️🎻🪕


AYBROOK STREET / six sight-reading violinists of any ability / 12’ / 2017 / ︎
a made-to-order piece, premiered at The Ditch, Shoreditch Town Hall

HOW TO DRAW / string quartet / 6’ / 2018 / ︎
about lines, written for Dartington International Summer School, premiered there by the Heath Quartet

SLOW DAY NO. 6 / piano + any other instrument, range Db4-B5 / 2’ / 2020
Slow Day No. 5 [see above] but with a bit more going on

SOMETHING PRETTY / harp, piano / 4’ / 2020
brunch music for Olivia Jageurs and Thomas Ang, at the Fidelio Cafe

THINKPIECE / flute, horn, cello + tape / 11’ / 2021 / ︎
verses and choruses with some thoughts about Messiaen at the end

BOWED AND BLOWED / clarinet, violin, cello / 6’ / 2022 / ︎
quite jaunty, lullaby in the middle, Listenpony commission, written for a trio from Explore Ensemble

LURID CUPOLA MOSS / violin, viola, cello / 10’ / 2022 / ︎
earthy and airy, all harmonics, Nash Ensemble commission, premiered at Wigmore Hall

BOWED BLOWED AND HIT / recorder[s], violin, double bass, marimba / 9’ / 2022
flexible[ish] scoring, any blowed instrument, any two bowed instruments, and any hit instrument could play this

STRANGE ISABELLA / wind quintet, piano / 2’ / 2022
peeling piano chords and important horn part, Stomping Ground commission, programmed alongside Isabella Leonarda

AND OTHER THINGS [version 3?] / clarinet [or violin], cello, piano /  10’ / 2022 / ︎
thinking about Charles Ives - the middle was written at Dartington in 2018, the movements either side materialised in June 2022

FRIENDS / kalimba, trumpet / 10-20’ / 2022
bathroom music

VALEDICTIONS / flute, clarinet, horn, cello / 4’30” /2022 / ︎
a little farewell


🎺️🎺️🎺️🎻🎻🎻🎻🪕🪕🪕🪕


SUBLUNAR / orchestra - no percussion / 8’ / 2019 / ︎
very yearning, + there’s an Ives song somewhere in the middle


  🛠️


PIANO QUINTET, title tbc, premiere 03/23

orchestration of MONTREAL SONGSfor fun

EVENTS


this year
















02/04/23 - BOWED AND BLOWED @ BERKHAMSTED OLD TOWN HALL W/ STUART KING, CAROLINE BALDING, CLARE O’CONNELL

------- there will be more things, I just simply do not yet know when exactly they will be -------

︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎



previous years
19/12/22 - DEAD HORSES; RELEASE (200 PIECES LAUNCH) @ RAM

04/12/22 - DUMFRIES AND THE EEL @ ROYAL OPERA HOUSE FOYER W/ DAN NEWELL + BILLY’S BAND [FAMILY SUNDAY EVENT]

13/11/22 -[POSTPONED] BOWED AND BLOWED @ BERKHAMSTED OLD TOWN HALL W/ STUART KING, CAROLINE BALDING, CLARE O’CONNELL

26/06/22 - FRIENDS @ VAN GOGH HOUSE LONDON

24/06/22 - STRANGE ISABELLA @ ROBINSON COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE W/ ENSEMBLE RENARD + JULIAN CHAN

21/06/22 - STRANGE ISABELLA @ RAM W/ ENSEMBLE RENARD + JULIAN CHAN  

12/06/22 - AND OTHER THINGS @ ST. STEPHEN’S DULWICH W/ TRITIUM TRIO

10/06/22 - STRING ARRANGEMENTS FOR MELTDOWN FESTIVAL @ ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL W/ CHINEKE! + GRACE JONES

18/05/22 - STRANGE ISABELLA @ PUSHKIN HOUSE W/ ENSEMBLE RENARD + JULIAN CHAN

05/05/22 - HOW TO SING AND PLAY THE HARP @ RAM W/ HÉLOÏSE WERNER + ESTHER BEYER

27/04/22 - BOWED BLOWED AND HIT @ RAM W/ TABEA DEBUS

22/03/22 - LURID CUPOLA MOSS @ WIGMORE HALL W/ NASH ENSEMBLE + RAM

03/03/22 - BOWED AND BLOWED @ LISTENPONY W/ EXPLORE ENSEMBLE

05/12/21 - ORCHESTRATIONS FOR BRIGHTON PHIL @ BRIGHTON DOME W/ JOANNA MACGREGOR, KATHRYN TICKELL AND AMY THATCHER [also this was my professional harmonium debut, in Grainger’s Green Bushes]

08/11/21 - DEAD HORSES @ RAM W/ LOTTE BETTS-DEAN

08/08/21 - THE DISSOLUTE SOCIETY COMPRISED OF ALL SORTS @ DARTINGTON FESTIVAL W/ JOSEPH HAVLAT

25/05/21 - MONTREAL SONGS @ NORFOLK & NORWICH FESTIVAL W/ JOSEPH HAVLAT AND LOTTE BETTS-DEAN

21/05/21 - SONATA @ BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE W/ JOSEPH HAVLAT

12/09/20 - SOMETHING PRETTY @ FIDELIO CAFE W/ OLIVIA JAGEURS AND THOMAS ANG

08/08/19 - FOR PEACE AND COUNTRY [STAGED] @ TÊTE À TÊTE FESTIVAL W/ LOTTE BETTS-DEAN, ELIAS BROWN review here

02/11/18 - SONATA @ RAM W/ JOSEPH HAVLAT

02/10/18 - FOR PEACE AND COUNTRY [UNSTAGED] @ RAM W/ LOTTE BETTS-DEAN + ME CONDUCTING

24/08/18 - HOW TO DRAW @ DARTINGTON W/ HEATH QUARTET

24/08/18 - AND OTHER THINGS @DARTINGTON W/ TRITIUM TRIO

16/11/17 - FALLING UP SONGS @ RAM W/ CHRISTINE BURAS, DAVID SHAW, JAMES GILBERT, THOMAS ANG

16/06/17 - AYBROOK STREET @ THE DITCH W/ THOMAS ANG, JACK GREED, JOSEPH HAVLAT, SHIR LEVY, ROMAN LYTWYNIW, DAVID SHAW


biography;


Isabella Gellis is a British-Canadian composer of acoustic music. Her work often focuses on imagined and disguised sounds, steeped in the sincerity of the silly, absurd, and surreal.

Recent highlights include a suite for pianist Joseph Havlat based on Biber’s Battalia à 10 premiered at Dartington, a trio about bowing and blowing for members of Explore Ensemble [Listenpony commission], a string trio about moss premiered at Wigmore Hall [Nash Ensemble commission] and an immersive operatic vignette about getting a haircut [Shadwell Opera commission].

Between 2015 and 2022, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music, with Edmund Finnis, Christopher Austin and Morgan Hayes, graduating with a Bicentenary Prize for all-round excellence and the Musicians’ Company Priaulx Rainier Prize. 

Outside of these particular realms, Isabella works as a project leader for Lights Camera Score, generating film scores with school children, and occasionally as an orchestrator/arranger.

She is currently working on a piano quintet for the Maconchy Quartet as part of RETAKE concert series, and a piece for the LSO as a participant of the 2023/2024 Panufnik scheme.


(in more words)

︎︎︎





take your pick, all credited to photographer Ella Pavlides



︎     ︎

︎