Ellen Reid

Ellen Reid's "Floodplain" for L.A. Chamber Orchestra and Gabriela Ortiz's "Altar de Cuerta" for the L.A. Phil put environmental art in new contexts.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), led by Music Director Jaime Martín, wraps the season with the LACO-commissioned world premiere of Floodplain by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, LACO’s Creative Advisor and 2017-18 Sound Investment Composer. This marks her first collaboration with Martín. The program also includes Brahms’ Double Concerto for Violin and Violoncello in A minor, highlighting Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and Principal Cello Andrew Shulman; and Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 5 in C minor, a cornerstone of classical music. LACO presents the compelling season finale at three Southland locations: Thursday, May 12, 8 pm, at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa; Saturday, May 14, 8 pm, at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena; and Sunday, May 15, 7 pm, at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Circle the east side of the psychology building onto Charles E. Young Drive, where crunchy pine needles often blanket the winding path toward the road, and you’ll hear the hum of traffic coming from Hilgard Avenue. But beginning this quarter you can hear something else. A celestial-sounding synthesizer melody. Head...

Oak Ridge native and 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winner, Ellen Reid, has created a version of her signature work, Soundwalk, to be installed at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville. Acessible on your smart phone by downloading a free app (https://www.ellenreidsoundwalk.com/download), Soundwalk is a GPS-enabled work that changes and transforms based on a listener's location or rate of speed. Every experience is truly unique. The music, recorded by the Kronos Quartet and the Soundwalk ensemble, consists of what Reid describes as "musical cells," which reflect the surrounding landscape. She says "it's about introspection and taking time alone with your thoughts while connecting with nature."

In a conversation, composer and sound artist Ellen Reid uses the word “interstitial.” As if highlighted in brightest yellow in dense text on a computer screen, the word pops to attention as an apt definition of the sonic and frequently visual worlds her works occupy. Except, from the tiny fulcrum of this in-between space, Reid’s compositions extend like the spokes on a bicycle wheel to vast application: chamber orchestra works, pieces for classical and contemporary instrumental ensembles and choral groups, operas, film and television scores, sound design for art installations, and more.

On this Memorial Day, Press Play replays some of our favorite interviews. Baker Roxana Jullipat shares how to go back in time and cook with ancient grains. Illustrator Stacy Michelson’s new book has all sorts of fun facts, like Ancient Egyptians invented the Marshmallow, and all Haas avocados can be traced back to a single tree. Good Food host Evan Kleiman has cider recommendations. And how about hiking in Griffith Park to personalized music by composer and sound artist Ellen Reid?

The Babcock Season welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, one of the most innovative artists of her generation. A composer and sound artist whose breadth of work spans opera, sound design, film scoring, ensemble and choral writing, she was awarded the the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in music for her opera, p r i s m.