biography;

Isabella Gellis is a British-Canadian composer of acoustic music. She has a fondness for storytelling, and her music often focuses on the sincerity of the absurd and surreal. Training first as a pianist and violinist, she started composing in 2014, a year which saw her concert debut as a composer: a piece for eight hands on one piano at Wigmore Hall, written for the Junior Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Piano Competition. 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. Her work has been performed in numerous settings, such as Dartington [Heath Quartet, Tritium Trio], Tête-à-Tête and Norfolk & Norwich festivals, and has been supported by the Hinrichsen Foundation and the RVW trust. Recent highlights include a substantial cycle for pianist Joseph Havlat premiered at Dartington, a trio for members of Explore Ensemble [Listenpony commission], a solo voice piece for mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean [RAM200 commission], a string trio premiered at Wigmore Hall [Nash Ensemble commission] and a voice-harp duet for Héloïse Werner and Esther Beyer. Outside of these particular realms, Isabella works as a project leader for Lights Camera Score, generating film scores with school children, and as an orchestrator/arranger. She is currently working on a piano quintet for the Maconchy Quartet as part of RETAKE concert series.