Patrick Ellis (b. 1994, London) is a composer, performer and curator based in Oxfordshire, UK, who has had his music presented across Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia.
In much of his concert work, he often utilises limited musical material and explores it with the use of subtle development, repetitive structures and juxtapositions. For more of his process driven and conceptual works, he takes found material from data and statistics, translating them into musical and time based parameters. Recent works have included experiments with visuals and projections, in works such as 'Fractured Motion' (2022) and 'Objects and Portrait Projections' (2021).
He has worked with many esteemed ensembles including the Residentie Orkest, Kluster 5, Orkest de Ereprijs, Xtro Percussion, The Tantrum Saxophone Quartet, The New European Ensemble, The Spaceship Ensemble, The Hodiernal Quartet, Kirkos, Thallein Ensemble, The Fidelio Trio, Decibel, Ensemble KROCK, 315 Ensemble, The Schubert Ensemble, CHROMA, Via Nova Choir and Noszferatu, and has collaborated with soloists such as Laura Sinnerton, Fenella Humphreys, Kathryn Williams, Alfian Emir Adytia, Chris Cresswell, Xenia Pestova, Benjamin Powell and Fumiko Miyachi.
Performances of his work have taken place at numerous festivals and concert series including, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Festival Dag in Branding, November Music, Mittelfest and Mittelyoung Festival, De Link Tilburg, Sundays at The Hugh Lane Gallery, New Music Now NL's Dag van de Componist, Kirkos Ensemble's Biosphere Festival, Union Musicale, Spring Festival The Hague, Kammer Klang, the Frequency Series Chicago, the Malaysian Composers Series, the London New Wind Festival, Ideas of Noise Festival, the Stratford-on-Avon Music Festival, Harmos Plural Festival, The Martin Read Festival, Spread York and Frontiers Festival.
In 2022, he was the Artist in Residence for the AMPA Fontys/De Link Residency programme. Previously, he has participated in the Psappha Composing For Piano Scheme in 2019-20, as well as the 25th Edition of Orkest de Erepijs’ Young Composers Meeting and Kathryn Williams' innovative Coming Up for Air Project.
Patrick's music has been broadcasted on Dutch radio stations, NPO Radio 4, Concertzender and Stranded FM (for Gaudeamus Muziekweek), as well as US station WCNY, and has been featured on releases from Birmingham Record Company and Huddersfield Contemporary Records.
As well as composing, Patrick is the artistic director of Open Union, an electric guitar and modular synth duo with composer-performer colleague Peter Bell. Described by treasured composer Howard Skempton as being, 'sometimes subtle and unstable; sometimes rich and dense', the duo aims to build up strong collaborative relationships to create new verbal and text based works, current collaborators are Christine Cornwell, Wilson Leywantono, May Chi and Paolo Griffin. Open Union have performed as part of the Sounding Here concert series at Splendor, Amsterdam and Batavierhuis, Rotterdam, as well as UK events AMOK, Birmingham Modular Organisation and CODA Festival.
Since February 2023, he has served alongside Zygmund de Somogyi as the Co-director for the online Contemporary Music Blog, Prxludes, where he has contributed with interviews with Sylvia Lim, Lise Morrison, Christian Drew and Laurence Osborn, as well features on Ivan Vukosavljević's debut album, 'The Burning', Avenue Azure's self-titled record and Ireland's most forward thinking ensemble, Kirkos ahead of their 2023 performance at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Previous interview experience includes his own Podcast series named, 'What is a Composer?' released in 2017 and a student radio show, 'In conversation with...' that was broadcasted in 2016.
He holds a Masters degree in composition from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag (Royal Conservatoire of The Hague) and a Bachelor's degree from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His principal tutors have included Martijn Padding, Guus Janssen, Andrew Hamilton, Seán Clancy, Ed Bennett, Howard Skempton and Michael Wolters.
