Biography

Jamie Elless (they/she) is an interdisciplinary composer, performer and designer from Birmingham. She draws inspiration from medieval European music, worldwide folk traditions, ambient and drone music, sonic storytelling, and queer liberation politics. She often blends experimental notation and graphic design practices with a collaborative approach to composition to create scores that explore the natural, the ethereal and the mysterious. She collaborated with composer-performer Rylan Gleave on the British Music Collection's LGBTQ+ Composers Open Call in 2022, and was a Resident Artist at Sirens Studio, Penryn in April 2023.

     Jamie completed her BA and MRes degrees in Music at the University of Nottingham, studying as a Henry Thomas Mitchell vocal practice scholar under the supervision of Elizabeth Kelly and Duncan MacLeod. As a Gareth Neame scholar at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, she completed an Artist Diploma with Distinction in 2023, studying composition with Laura Bowler, Ed Jessen, Dominic Murcott and Gwyn Pritchard, and harpsichord with James Johnstone. She won the Final Year Prize in Composition in 2019 and the Bernard Slee Prize for Opera in 2021 from the University of Nottingham, won the 2022 Daryl Runswick Composition Competition, and was honourably mentioned in the final of the 2023 Competition. She was awarded the Director's Prize for Excellence in Composition and the 'Friends in New York of TCM London Award / Edgar TP Comley Certificate of Excellence' from Trinity Laban in 2023.

photo: Ella Maiden, Sirens Studio

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Jamie Elless

This composer has self-identified as LGBTQ+ - part of a platform intervention celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month 2021.

Through it we want to create a safe and inclusive digital space that allows for greater representation, celebration and recognition of LGBTQ+ composers and music-creators, whilst bringing their work to a wider audience.