biography;
Isabella Gellis is a British-Canadian composer of acoustic music. Her work often focuses on imagined and disguised sounds, steeped in 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, the Postgraduate Composition Prize, and the Musicians’ Company Priaulx Rainier Prize. 


She is currently working on a piano quintet, a piece for the LSO (as a participant of the Panufnik scheme), an opera (commissioned by Shadwell Opera), and a new orchestral work for Aspen Music Festival for summer 2024.





take your pick, all credited to photographer Ella Pavlides



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