Jane Ellen is an active composer, performer, and recording artist, currently living in the southwestern US. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of New Mexico (double majors in Music and Religious Studies); after completing 15 hours towards a Master of Music degree in composition she received permanent Professional Masters certification from the Music Teachers National Association in Washington, DC.
Her newest CD, Following My Heart (2009), completes the trilogy which began in 2004 with her first album, From My Heart, followed by Seasons of the Heart in 2006. In 2007 she released Flowers in Winter, a holiday themed CD. She is an award-winning member of ASCAP and served for a decade as National Director of the SAI American Composers Bureau; her biography has been listed in several editions of Marquis’s Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who of American Women.
In 2009 Jane received her 20th consecutive annual award from ASCAP; she has also won several national competitions. Commissioned by numerous performers and ensembles over the years, she is perhaps proudest to have received a commission from the Canossian Daughters of Charity, FdCC, for a hymn on the occasion of the canonisation of St Josephine Bakhita in Rome, in 2000. This piece, Lead Us To Christ Jesus, is currently being performed around the world in three languages. Her catalogue to date includes works for chamber ensemble, solo instruments, choir and keyboard, and educational works.
Passionate about theatre, Jane has collaborated with playwright Christina Hamlett on several projects, including a two-act musical The Last Days of Indian Summer and the mini-musical Ed Poe and the Ravenettes, and works frequently in collaboration with lyricist Claire Roth. Two of her pieces are included in the soundtrack to the 2010 West Malaysian indie film Lukisan Hati, and in 2008 she composed a piece for the soundtrack to the German film Ekkelins Knecht; she also wrote the theme for the documentary The Man Who Lost the Civil War and the theme for the internet radio show Sonic Soaps. Musical selections from her first two CDs were used as the soundtrack for radio productions written and produced in London, England by Chris Dale, A Cream Cracker Under the Settee and Elaine; in 2006 she completed a two-act musical entitled Burying Mama, written with playwright Kathleen Matthews.
For several years Jane collaborated on scripts for the national award-winning children’s radio program Boombox Classroom. Two poems, ‘Reenactment’ and ‘Alone in Misty Light’, have been published by the International Library of Poetry, and she is currently pursuing other writing projects.
An avid history buff, Jane is a popular lecturer who spends much of her time researching and presenting programs on her favourite topics which include Mediaeval Music, the Elizabethan Era, Music of the English and American Civil Wars, the Victorian Era, Music Heard on the Titanic, Jazz History and Popular Music Appreciation, and Military Music. When not engaged in musical pursuits, teaching keyboard, or giving lectures, she enjoys classic mystery novels, following the cricket, and watching new and old Doctor Who.
