Eloise Lily 'Ellie' Farrer is a composer, song-writer, lyricist and producer based in London. Born in Hertfordshire in 1995, and growing up in Buckinghamshire, she currently studies composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Dr Paul Newland. In 2015 she took time out of her studies in London to study at Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, Netherlands with Martijn Padding and Yannis Kyriakides, under the ERASMUS+ scheme. Ellie's studies are generously funded by the Guildhall School trust, the Music Students' Hostel Trust, and the Henry Wood Accommodation Trust. Ellie's music is influenced by a wide range of styles, from EDM to folk music from across Europe and Asia, and of course classical and contemporary classical music. Composers particularly important to her work include Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Alberto Ginastera, Olivier Messiaen, Louis Andriessen and John Adams. Many of Ellie's works can be described as fast and fun, often based on quirky extra-musical ideas and sporting distinctive titles. Her musical aims include writing humorous and fun music for the enjoyment of players and audiences (and the composer herself!), combining different art forms, and expanding the repertoire of seldom heard instruments, including folk instruments and electronic instruments. However Ellie is very versatile and does also write music with more sombre or political undertones, such as her recent string quartet .ru, reflecting on the 2015 Metrojet attack. Ellie has written for and worked with a number of musical personalities and ensembles, such as Kuljit Bhamra (tabla), Tunde Jegede (kora), Sarah Dacey (soprano) and the Brannick/Samek Duo (clarinet/saxophone and percussion). Her works have been performed in venues across the UK and Europe. She made her Dutch debut in October 2015, when her piano work Rapping Astronauts Eating Whipped Cream Pizza was premiered at Het Nutshuis, Den Haag. A few months later her song for soprano and accordion, Whore Toad, was performed in Den Haag twice to great acclaim. Another of Ellie's works was performed at Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, Malta: a piece for flute, harp and spoken voice about violence and racism in South Africa called Morning Sees Nothing, written for a Commonwealth event. Upcoming projects include a piece for bass oboe and piano, with the bass oboe part played by Michael Sluman; a scoring of Ruttmann's Lichtspiel opus iv for the Barbican Silent Film Series; a work for Guildhall's New Music Ensemble to premier in June 2016 in Milton Court Concert Hall in London; and music for Dutch artist Maria Smits's installation Sonata 11000+ As well as working as a composer, Ellie is also a lyricist, writing words for almost all of her songs, normally in English but sometimes in Italian and French (which she speaks proficiently). She is also a pianist, accordionist and classical guitarist, with an interest in spreading awareness of Spanish and Latin American composers.
