Ellis Ludwig-Leone

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.