“There is so much emotion in your pieces… it feels as if you leave a small piece of you in each one of them. Really, really beautiful.”
— Gabriella di Laccio, Soprano and founder of Donne, Women In Music
I’m Ella and my superpower is creating music.
We have a problem with Western Classical Music. It is out of date. It is exclusive and exclusionary. It is not representative of who we as a society are in the 21st Century.
And this is such a shame.
Western Classical Music has the capacity to instil joy, to inspire change, to cause riots and to make audiences weep.
Music that releases repressed emotions and helps us to remember our humanity.
We need to come back to the music.
I have had my own journey in this industry - I’ve even turned my back on it on more than one occasion.
But I realised recently that we need to be the change we want to see.
And because you are here, on my website, reading this… I think that you know that too.
I think that you want to use your gift, your talent, your extraordinary superpower to breathe life back into an industry that is choking on it’s own stubborness.
That you want to create a space for yourself, for your colleagues and for the next generation to be fully embraced and valued within this industry for the music that you perform and create.
That elitism isn’t the way forwards. Inclusivity is.
So, my fellow change-maker.
If you are ready to walk this path with me and create Extraordinary Music for Extraordinary Stories, read on, listen, and then get in touch.
I am a critically acclaimed composer with a multi award-winning short film under my belt and repeat commissions from BBC Radio 3, as well as running a successful podcast, Beyond The Chameleon.
I have two small children and a spirit child, who remind me every day that this life is only lived once and it is mine to explore.
I believe that we need to be the change we want to see.
I love wild swimming, yoga, sewing and having a good old sing.
I'm all about inclusivity. As a Black woman of mixed-heritage in the music for media industry, I have to be. It's my goal to ensure that I not only succeed, but also clear a space for those who come behind me. We all stand on our ancestors' shoulders.
“Ella is a truly gifted musician and is exceptionally creative with her musical talents”
— Meredith Moore, Horn Player, Composer and MD of Otonal
Formal Biography
Ella is a critically acclaimed storytelling composer, described in 2020 as ‘one of the UK’s most exciting music-makers’ by Classic FM and recognised by Women Of The Year Lunch 2021. In 2021 Ella received BBC Radio 3's flagship commission for International Women's Day. Producer Olwen Fisher, who commissioned Ella, said of the music: 'It is a piece of such power and beauty that it took my breath away.’
Ella focuses her music on storytelling, working with Directors, Writers, Librettists & Poets who reject the phrase ‘this is how things are done here’, and whose stories create positive change.
Ella’s song, ‘This Little Rose’, has been included in Trinity College London’s Grade 8 Singing exam syllabus and described as ‘one of the most memorable songs on [the album ‘Emergence’]’ by Music-Web International.
Recent works include:
:Insert Expletive Here: (2022) explores lived experiences of racism. Commissioned by East London Music Group, Matthew Hardy, Artistic Director said that ‘it was clear how much [the piece] made many people think about these ideas that they hadn’t engaged with in the past’.
Girls Are Coming Out Of The Woods (Poet Tishani Doshi, for Soprano and Piano), was commissioned by Donne, Women In Music and premiered at Royal Albert Hall in October 2022. Founder Gabriella Di Laccio: ‘Everytime I read [through the piece] I have goosebumps’.
The Fell We Climb, an animation with Anti-Racist Cumbria and +3k Animation Studios, written by Black and Brown young people on their experiences of growing up “not white” in Cumbria.
Ella’s debut album, Lemon Verbena, with poet Jo Brandon, (funded by PRS Foundation and Kickstarter), will be released Winter 2023.
Past work includes multi award-winning short film, ‘AstraZeneca - The Attack’, (Havas Lynx, Maker Projects). Ella’s song, ‘This Little Rose’, has been included in Trinity College London’s Grade 8 Singing exam syllabus and recorded by Nadine Benjamin and Nicole Panizza in 2019, was described as ‘one of the most memorable songs on this disc’ by Music-Web International.
Current projects include: feature-length documentary, Raising Aniya, a film about environmental justice on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast seen through the eyes of Aniya Wingate, a talented 17-year-old Black American dancer; and belly/back with writer Jennifer Farmer, an interactive communal musical experience evoking what it means to not only retain, but to centre your softness when existing in a Black, neurodivergent femme body.
In 2020 Ella was a guest lecturer at Cambridge University Music Department, with Richard Causton noting: 'Your honesty and openness were incredibly refreshing and, as I said, made for an absolutely stunning (and very moving) talk, with - most importantly - such beautiful, authentic music.’
Ella is an ambassador for Donne - Women In Music, and her music scores are stocked by Cambridge University Pendlebury Library, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Trinity Laban Jerwood Library, Leeds Conservatoire, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Westminster Music Library and The British Library; and are available to purchase via www.ellajarmanpinto.com
Ella is the creator and host of podcast, Beyond The Chameleon: Conversations on Belonging in the Creative Media Industries, speaking to multi-award winning professionals about how we can increase inclusivity in the industry.
Alongside Katie Beardsworth, CEO of Polyphony Arts, Ella spearheads #WriteUsIntoHistory, a project that aims to protect and promote the legacy of underrepresented composers so that future generations have a wealth of role models in the Classical Music Industry.