BIO
Ellis Ludwig-Leone (b. 1989) is a composer whose music combines lush, naturalistic textures with moments of thorny complexity. Influenced by a lifelong love of storytelling and myth, his music is distinguished by its narrative sweep and attention to subtle changes in emotional valence. Lauded by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino for his “knack for simultaneously expressing beauty and crisis,” Ludwig-Leone’s music exists in the fine margins between euphoria and dread.
Since coming to international attention as the songwriter behind the celebrated indie band San Fermin, Ludwig-Leone has spent the greater part of the last decade composing works for many of today’s contemporary classical luminaries.
False We Hope, his first album of recorded compositions, is a view into the composer’s singular imagination and the elements that shape his musical world: thickets of bristly strings that coalesce into glowing triads; ghostly voices that curl in and out of shifting harmonies; wispy melodies drifting over haunted fugues. Performed by frequent collaborators Eliza Bagg (Lisel, Roomful of Teeth) and the Grammy-winning Attacca Quartet, and featuring original lyrics from author Karen Russell (Swamplandia!) and poet Carey McHugh (American Gramophone), False We Hope is a meditation on faith and family, the ghostly origins of language, and the lonely vigils people keep, together and alone. The work premiered in spring 2022 at Big Ears Festival, followed by a worldwide release via Better Company Records in 2023.
The 2022-23 season also saw the premiere of The Night Falls, a dance-opera with music by Ludwig-Leone, lyrics by Ludwig-Leone and Karen Russell, and direction and choreography by Troy Schumacher (New York City Ballet), at PEAK Performances at Montclair State University. Praised for Ludwig-Leone’s “ingenious, gorgeous score” that “manages to suggest both the siren song and its antidote” (The New Yorker), The Night Falls takes place in a Florida at once phantasmagorical and kitschy, where sirens beckon a group of suffering people to an abandoned campground. Written for a cast of eight singers, nine dancers, and orchestra, The Night Falls was named one of The New York Times Best Dance Performances of 2023.
This season also sees the premiere of a new work for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus; the premiere and subsequent European and American tours of a new work for harpist Lavinia Meijer and violist Nadia Sirota; and the premiere of a new work for choreographer Danielle Rowe and the Grand Rapids Ballet.
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Ludwig-Leone has written for many of today’s most respected ensembles and soloists, including ACME, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Attacca Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Chatter, The Crossing, Decoda, Fifth House Ensemble, Het Gelders Orkest, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, NOW Ensemble, The Knights, yarn/wire, vocalist Eliza Bagg, harpist Lavinia Meijer, violist Nadia Sirota, and pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Ludwig-Leone was named the composer-in-residence for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in 2015, and is a recipient of residencies from MacDowell, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Við Djúpið music festival in Iceland. His concert works have been recorded for Sony Classical and New Amsterdam Records.
Ludwig-Leone works frequently with choreographer Troy Schumacher, and their ballet Common Ground was premiered by the New York City Ballet in 2015. Ludwig-Leone has composed seven ballets for Schumacher’s dance company BalletCollective, including collaborations with visual artist David Salle, architect James Ramsey, photographer Paul Maffi, and poets Carey McHugh and Cynthia Zarin.
During the pandemic, Ludwig-Leone worked with playwright Tony Kushner and director Ellie Heyman on The Great Work Begins, a livestream benefit performance of scenes from Angels in America. The hybrid theater/film piece, featuring Glenn Close as Roy Cohn and an original score by Ludwig-Leone, was named by The New York Times as one of the Best Theater Works of 2020, and raised over $100k for amfAR’s Fund to Fight COVID-19.
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Together with his bandmate Allen Tate, Ludwig-Leone is a founding partner of Better Company Records, a Brooklyn-based label with an eclectic roster and an emphasis on collaboration. Recently, the label released San Fermin’s In This House, featuring contributions from Attacca Quartet, Lisel, Nico Muhly, Sorcha Richardson, Thao, The Districts, Wild Pink, and Wye Oak. Headquartered out of Better Company Studios in Fort Greene, the label has seen over 100 releases from more than 30 artists since it was founded in 2020.
Born in Rhode Island and raised in rural Massachusetts, he lives in Brooklyn.
Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s music combines lush, naturalistic textures with moments of thorny complexity. Influenced by a lifelong love of storytelling and myth, his music is distinguished by its narrative sweep and attention to subtle changes in emotional valence. Lauded by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino for his “knack for simultaneously expressing beauty and crisis,” Ludwig-Leone’s music exists in the fine margins between euphoria and dread.
Having come to international attention as the songwriter behind the celebrated indie band San Fermin, Ludwig-Leone has spent the greater part of the last decade balancing his work as a songwriter with a robust career as a composer of concert works written for many of today’s contemporary classical luminaries.
False We Hope, his first album of recorded concert works (out on Better Company Records), is an inaugural view for many into the composer’s singular imagination and the elements that shape his musical world. Performed by frequent collaborators Eliza Bagg (Lisel, Roomful of Teeth) and the GRAMMY®-winning Attacca Quartet, and featuring original lyrics from MacArthur recipient and Pulitzer finalist Karen Russell (Swamplandia!) and poet Carey McHugh (American Gramophone), False We Hope is a meditation on faith and family, the ghostly origins of language, and the lonely vigils people keep, together and alone.
Comprised of two larger works: the song cycle False We Hope and the string quartet Speech after the Removal of the Larynx, the album’s musical and narrative elements echo back and forth like a seance, mirroring a human desire for connection against the gnarled, sometimes terrifying response of the presence on the other side. The music on False We Hope was written in solitude, in a moment of disquiet and fear. But this new community of collaborators, assembled to bring the deeply relevant themes of these works to life, unflinchingly presents an expression of hope in an uncertain world.
LISTEN
WATCH
PHOTOS
World Premiere: Big Ears Festival 2022
PRESS
Listen to the full episode on the New Sounds website.
“A thought-provoking sonic journey across a strange and extraordinary soundscape that almost defies description… the unsettling intensity of Ludwig-Leone’s composition, Bagg’s ghostly vocals, and Attacca’s versatility make False We Hope a place where violence and serenity walk side-by-side."
PErformances
previous:
March 25, 2022 - World Premiere @ Big Ears Festival - Knoxville TN
April 26, 2023 - Album Release Performance - Public Records, NYC
upcoming:
March 15, 2024 - Birds of Paradise Festival - Utrecht, Netherlands
June 19, 2024 - Við Djúpið Festival - Ísafjörður, Iceland
MORE
FALSE WE HOPE is available for booking as an evening length piece.
Orchestration is string quartet, piano, synthesizer, and vocalist. A stage plot with detailed tech requirements can be downloaded here.
CONTACT: sian@bettercompanyrecords.com
BOOKING: ryan@arrivalartists.com
The Night Falls
The Night Falls is an evening-length dance-opera with music and lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone (San Fermin), book and lyrics by Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), and choreographed and directed by Troy Schumacher (NYC Ballet/BalletCollective).
A new myth for our fractured era, with book and lyrics by Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), music and lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone (San Fermin), choreographed and directed by Troy Schumacher (NYC Ballet and BalletCollective).
All across America, people on the brink of despair begin to have the same nightmare; a song will not leave their heads. This dangerously beautiful music lures a group of strangers to "The Night Falls": an abandoned roadside attraction built around a mysterious grotto, the concert hall of “Florida's own Sirens.” One of these lost souls is Felisberto Robles, a Queens, NY teenager who has recently suffered a terrible loss. Night after night, he dreams of three women transformed into monstrous birds. They sing to him in his sleep, beckoning him to join them. Desperate to learn why this song is haunting him–and desperate to hear it again–Felis travels to the grotto from his dreams. When he arrives, he discovers he is not alone; many others have been lured to the water's edge. Within a group of suffering people from all walks of American life–among them an athlete whose spirit was shattered by a very public breakdown, a mother who lost her daughter to addiction, and a misanthropic python hunter–The Night Falls depicts the metamorphosis of wary individuals into a true community.
With choreography that dramatizes the leap of empathy between bodies, and music that channels the polarities of surrender and resistance, The Night Falls shows the visceral power of art to brace us against the seduction of despair.
Instrumentation
Flute (dbl. Piccolo)
Clarinet
Horn
Harp
Piano (dbl. Keyboard)
Percussion 1.2
Violin
Viola
Cello
Voices
Siren 1 - Lyric Soprano
Siren 2 - Soprano
Siren 3 - Mezzo-Soprano
Angela - Soprano
Nadia - Mezzo-Soprano
Felisberto - Tenor
George - Baritone
Allan - Bass
WATCH
PHOTOS
Score (Excerpt)
PRESS
New York Times (Sunday Arts full page feature)
New York Times (Best Dance 2023)
“Ludwig-Leone’s ingenious, gorgeous score manages to suggest both the siren song and its antidote.” - The New Yorker
The New York Times Style Magazine
“Masterfully directed, written, designed and composed… a parable for our time” - Dance Enthusiast
More InformatIon
Works
Chamber
Lifeline (2023) for percussion quartet. Commissioned by Sandbox Percussion. 12’
Free Dive (2023) for flute and vibraphone. Commissioned by Catherine Gregory. 3’
Blessing (for a Wedding) (2023) for voice and viola. For Eliza and Jonathan Bagg. 3’
The Order of Things (2022) for string quartet. Commissioned by Satellite Collective for Danielle Rowe and Grand Rapids Ballet. 25’
Suspensions (2022) for harp and viola. Commissioned by Chelsea Lane. Recorded by Chelsea Lane for Better Company Records. 8’
Past Life (2021) multiple versions: for harp and viola; for flute, piano, cello. Commissioned by Lavinia Meijer and Nadia Sirota. 8’
False We Hope (2021) for voice, string quartet, piano & synth. Text by Karen Russell and Carey McHugh. Recorded by Eliza Bagg and Attacca Quartet for Better Company Records. 28’
Speech after the Removal of the Larynx (2021) for string quartet. Recorded by Attacca Quartet for Better Company Records. 14’
Natural History (2020) for flute, clarinet, piano, vibraphone, two violins, two cellos. Commissioned by BalletCollective for The Knights. 24’
Processional (2020) for harp and piano. Recorded by Chelsea Lane and Ellis Ludwig-Leone for Better Company Records. 2.5’
Simple Machine (2016) for flute, clarinet, piano, guitar & double bass. Commissioned by Ecstatic Music Festival for NOW Ensemble. 10’
Until the Walls Cave In (2016) for oboe, piano, string quartet & electronic playback. Commissioned by BalletCollective for Hotel Elefant. 23’
Invisible Divide (2015) for vocalist, oboe, guitar, piano, keyboard & string quartet. Commissioned by BalletCollective for Hotel Elefant and Vanessa Upson. 24’
All That We See (2014) for baritone saxophone, electric guitar, piano & string quartet. Commissioned by BalletCollective for Hotel Elefant. 19’
Dear and Blackbirds (2014) multiple versions: for string quartet, for oboe quartet. Commissioned by BalletCollective for Hotel Elefant. 10’
The Impulse Wants Company (2013) for piano quintet. Commissioned by BalletCollective for American Contemporary Music Ensemble. 22’
GROW (2012) for clarinet quintet. Commissioned by Við Djúpið Festival for Decoda. 8’
Four Short Pieces for String Quartet (2011) for string quartet. Performed by JACK Quartet. 6’
Orchestra
Shadowy Figures (2019) for orchestra and solo harp. Commissioned by Het Gelders Orkest for Lavinia Meijer. 8’.
Common Ground (2015) for orchestra. Commissioned by New York City Ballet. 15’
How to Fake Your Death (2015) for orchestra. Commissioned by Alabama Symphony Orchestra. Revised for Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (2016). 12’
Choir
The Willow Tree (2023) for young SATB voices, viola, piano, and percussion. Commissioned by Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Text by Karen Russell. 11’
To Look for Owls (2020) for SATB chorus, cello, and harp. Commissioned by Sony Classical for Chamber Choir of Europe. 4’
Daphne (2020) for young SATB voices, viola, piano, and percussion. Commissioned by Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Text by Karen Russell. 12’
Who What When Where Why (and a few other questions) (2018) for SATB chorus. Commissioned by The Crossing. Text assembled by composer from various sources. 12’
Bloom and Round Dance (2017) for SATB chorus, two pianos, and two percussionists. Commissioned by Manhattan Choral Ensemble, with yarn/wire. Text adapted from traditional. 8’
Lying in a Field, Age 67 and Singing in a Chorus, Age 14 (2016) for children’s chorus and large chamber ensemble. Commissioned by Brooklyn Youth Chorus, with wild Up Orchestra. Recorded for New Amsterdam Records with International Contemporary Ensemble. Text by Max Posner. 11’
Solo
Sanctuary (2017) for piano. Commissioned by Terezín Music Foundation for Simone Dinnerstein. 11’
Simpler Language (2016) for harp. Commissioned by Lavinia Meijer. 6’
Night Loops (2014) for harp, looping pedal & electronics. Commissioned by Lavinia Meijer and Sony Classical. 9’
Elaborate Monument (2011) for piano. 8’
OPERA/Theater
The Night Falls (2023) in three acts with one intermission, for eight vocalists and large chamber ensemble. Libretto by Karen Russell and Ellis Ludwig-Leone. Commissioned by BalletCollective, and developed with support from the Robbins Foundation/Project Springboard, presented by PEAK Performances at Montclair University. 90’
The Specialist’s Hat (in progress) in one act, for five voices, two cellos, piano/keyboard. Book by Cory Finley, music and lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone.
Film
Ledge (2021) written and directed by Alex Edelman. 6’
The Great Work Begins - Scenes from Angels in America (2020). Directed by Ellie Heyman, written by Tony Kushner. 55’
San Fermin
LPs:
Arms (2024). Written, arranged. Recorded by San Fermin. Better Company Records.
The Cormorant I and II (2019-20). Written, arranged, produced. Recorded by San Fermin. Better Company Records/Sony Masterworks.
Live at the Fillmore (2019). Written, arranged, produced. Recorded by San Fermin and Magik*Magik Orchestra. Votiv Music.
Belong (2017). Written, arranged, produced. Recorded by San Fermin. Downtown Records/Interscope.
Jackrabbit (2015). Written, arranged. Co-produced with Peter Katis. Recorded by San Fermin. Downtown Records.
San Fermin (2013). Written, arranged, produced. Recorded by San Fermin. Downtown Records.
EPs:
Your Ghost - EP (2022). Written, arranged. Produced by Allen Tate. Recorded by San Fermin. Better Company Records.
In This House (2021). Co-written, arranged, produced. Recorded by San Fermin, featuring Attacca Quartet, Nico Muhly, Sorcha Richardson, Lisel, Thao, The Districts, Wild Pink, and Wye Oak. Better Company Records.
Other releases:
“Shiver” (2015) with Sam Amidon, with lyrics by Charles Simic. Recorded by Sam Amidon and San Fermin. Downtown Records/Nonesuch.
Arrangement/Production
Roland Faunte - First Thing (2023). String arrangements.
Fatoumata Diawara feat. Brooklyn Youth Chorus - Sete, Moussouya (2023). Choral arrangements. 3ème Bureau / Wagram Music.
Eleri Ward - Keep a Tender Distance (2022). String arrangements. Sk-K-Boom Records.
Henry Hoagland - The Great Filter Sweep (co-arranged with Nico Muhly), and After the Show (2022). String arrangements. Better Company Records.
Will Orchard - Go Home Instead (2021). String arrangements. Better Company Records.
Wild Pink - A Billion Little Lights (2021). String arrangements. Royal Mountain Records.
Pure Bathing Culture - Hats (2020). String and wind arrangements. Better Company Records.
Allen Tate - Sleepwalker (2016). Band arrangements, producer. Votiv Music.
DISCOGRAPHY
SOLO
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 24TH, 2023
SAN FERMIN
FEATURED ON
MUSIC FOR PICTURE
CONTACT
General Inquiries: Sian Walden | Better Company Records
Management (San Fermin): Hampton Howerton | Figure8 Mgmt
Agent (Theater): Kevin Lin | CAA
Agent (San Fermin / False We Hope): Ryan Farlow | Arrival Artists