BIO
Ellis Ludwig-Leone (b. 1989) writes music distinguished by its narrative sweep and attention to subtle shifts in emotional valence. Lauded for his “knack for simultaneously expressing beauty and crisis” (The New Yorker), his work combines lush, naturalistic textures with moments of thorny complexity to walk the line between wonder and dread.
Since coming to international attention as the creative force behind the celebrated indie band San Fermin—with whom he has released five records, three EPs, and two live albums while touring extensively—Ludwig-Leone has composed numerous works for the concert hall and stage. His music has been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, and New York City Ballet, and has been recorded for Sony Classical, New Amsterdam, and Better Company Records. He is a recipient of residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Banff Centre for the Arts, and in 2024 was selected as the recipient of the Ellis-Beauregard Composer Award.
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The 2025-26 season saw the premiere of The Woods, an immersive concert experience conceived with director and choreographer Troy Schumacher (New York City Ballet). The extended, sold out run of shows at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn mapped Ludwig-Leone’s music across an enveloping set designed by Jason Ardizzone-West (Lady Gaga, Redwood), with costumes by fashion designer Elena Velez. Other 2025-26 highlights include: In This House for soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason with Philadelphia Orchestra (World Premiere) and BBC Concert Orchestra (UK Premiere) in a new orchestration by Nico Muhly; North Woods, a 20-minute orchestral work commissioned by the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation for Bangor Symphony Orchestra (World Premiere); Ellis Ludwig-Leone: Composer Portrait, a series of concerts of Ludwig-Leone’s chamber music at November Music Festival in the Netherlands; Natural History, a ballet choreographed by Troy Schumacher for BalletCollective; and Living Room, a live musical installation featuring Ludwig-Leone’s collected works for harp, commissioned by ArtPrize for its 2025 festival.
The Night Falls, a dance-driven opera with music by Ludwig-Leone, a libretto by Ludwig-Leone and Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), and direction and choreography by Troy Schumacher, premiered at PEAK Performances at Montclair State University in February 2023. Praised for Ludwig-Leone’s “ingenious, gorgeous score” (The New Yorker), The Night Falls was named one of The New York Times’ Best Dance Performances of 2023.
Ludwig-Leone has released two albums of chamber music via his label, Better Company Records: Past Life/Lifeline, an EP of new works for Lavinia Meijer, Nadia Sirota, and Sandbox Percussion; and False We Hope, a song cycle and string quartet written for Attacca Quartet and vocalist Eliza Bagg. Described as “a thought provoking journey across a strange and extraordinary soundscape” (OperaWire), False We Hope has since had performances at Big Ears Festival, Birds of Paradise Festival, Við Djúpið Music Festival, November Music Festival, and more.
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. Headquartered out of Better Company Studios in Fort Greene, the label has seen over 200 releases from more than 50 artists since it was founded in 2020.
Ludwig-Leone has composed for a wide range of ensembles and soloists, including ACME, ADAM Quartet, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Attacca Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, The Crossing, Decoda, Grand Rapids Ballet, Het Gelders Orkest, Indianapolis Symphony, International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Metropolis Ensemble, NOW Ensemble, The Knights, Orchester im Treppenhaus, Sandbox Percussion, yarn/wire, vocalist Eliza Bagg, harpist Lavinia Meijer, violist Nadia Sirota, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, and pianist Simone Dinnerstein.
He works frequently with choreographer Troy Schumacher, and their work has been commissioned and premiered by the New York City Ballet. Ludwig-Leone has composed eight 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.
In 2020, 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, in support of amfAR's Fund to Fight Covid-19. The hybrid theater/film piece, featuring a star-studded cast and an original score by Ludwig-Leone, was named by The New York Times as one of the Best Theater Works of 2020.
Ludwig-Leone has a longstanding relationship with the Við Djúpið Music Festival in Ísafjördur, Iceland, where he runs a weeklong artist residency during the summer solstice, as well as a workshop for aspiring songwriters.
Upon graduating from Yale University in 2011, he was a musical assistant to composer Nico Muhly, assisting on scores and recordings. Born in Rhode Island and raised in rural Massachusetts, he lives in Brooklyn.
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. Desperate to learn why this song is haunting him–and desperate to hear it again–he 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, and demonstrates the visceral power of art to brace us against the seduction of despair.
LISTEN
WATCH
PHOTOS
PRESS
New York Times (Sunday Arts feature)
“Ludwig-Leone’s ingenious, gorgeous score manages to suggest both the siren song and its antidote.” - The New Yorker
“The choreographer-director Troy Schumacher and, especially, the composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone found a language to express split selves and the power of empathy, embodied and vocalized by a talented multigenerational cast.” - New York Times (Best Dance 2023)
The New York Times Style Magazine (feature)
Esquire (feature)
“Masterfully directed, written, designed and composed… a parable for our time” - Dance Enthusiast
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, pitting the human desire for connection against the gnarled, sometimes terrifying response of the presence on the other side.
LISTEN
WATCH
PHOTOS
PRESS
- New Sounds #4608: Chamber-Pop Song Cycles
“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."
“Ludwig-Leone… is actually something of a musical polyglot. On one hand, he is the indie songwriter behind San Fermin; on another, he is a composer in the contemporary classical idiom. These roles, Ludwig-Leone says, ‘come in and out of relationship. When I’m composing, I’m thinking about form, structure, networks of pitches,’ he says. ‘Songwriting comes from a more conversational place, a place of connection.’”
Ellis Ludwig-Leone: Speech After the Removal of the Larynx - The Brooklyn Rail
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False We Hope is available for booking as an evening length piece. A stage plot with detailed tech requirements can be viewed here
CONTACT: sian@bettercompanyrecords.com
Works
Click each title for more information and score purchase links
Chamber
Red (2025) for clarinet and percussion quartet. 14’
Exquisite Corpse (2024) for string quartet. 11’
Hexentanz (2024) for large chamber ensemble. 5’
Lifeline (2023) for percussion quartet. 12’
Free Dive (2023) for flute and vibraphone. 3’
Suspensions (2022) for harp and viola. 8’
Past Life (2021) multiple versions: duet for harp and viola; trio for violin, piano, cello; trio for flute, piano, cello; trio for flute, harp, viola. 10’
Speech after the Removal of the Larynx (2021) for string quartet. 15’
Processional (2020) for harp and piano. 3’
Simple Machine (2016) for flute, clarinet, piano, guitar & double bass. 10’
GROW (2012) for clarinet and string quartet. 8’
Four Short Pieces for String Quartet (2011) for string quartet. 6’
Orchestra
North Woods (2025) for orchestra. 20’
In This House (2025) for solo cello and orchestra (arr. Nico Muhly). 5’
Shadowy Figures (2019) multiple versions: for solo harp and orchestra; for harp and string quartet. 8’
How to Fake Your Death (2015) for orchestra. 14’
VOICE
Weird Sisters (2024) for SSA chorus and piano. 4’
Blessing (for a Wedding) (2023) multiple versions: for voice and viola; for voice and piano. 3’
The Willow Tree (2023) for young SSAA chorus, viola, piano, and percussion. 13’
False We Hope (2021) song cycle, multiple versions: for solo voice, string quartet, piano & synth; for three voices, string quartet, piano & synth. 28’
To Look for Owls (2020) for SATB chorus, cello, and harp. 4’
Who What When Where Why (and a few other questions) (2018) for SATB chorus. 12’
Bloom (2017) for SATB chorus, two pianos, and two percussionists. 4’
Round Dance (2017) for SATB chorus, two pianos, and two percussionists. 4’
Lying in a Field, Age 67 (2016) for young SSAA chorus and large chamber ensemble. 6’
Singing in a Chorus, Age 14 (2016) multiple versions: for young SSAA chorus and large chamber ensemble; for young SSAA chorus, piano, and vibraphone. 5’
Solo
A Hard World for Little Things (2025) for harp. 13’
Quiet Hours (2025) seven works for piano. 28’
Farewell (4’)
Family Portrait (4’)
Trois Allumettes (for M.H.) (4’)
Three Sisters (4’)
The House at Night (3’)
Nocturne (5’)
A Long — Long — Sleep (4’)
Blessing (for a Wedding) (2023) arr. for harp. 3’
Processional (2020) arr. for harp. 3’
Sanctuary (2017) for piano. 11’
Simpler Language (2016) for harp. 6’
Night Loops (2014), multiple versions: for harp, looping pedal & electronics; for solo acoustic harp. 9’
OPERA/Theater
The Woods (2025) for voices, rock band, and chamber ensemble. 75’
The Night Falls (2023) for eight vocalists and large chamber ensemble. Full score. Piano-vocal score. 75’
The Specialist’s Hat (in progress) for voices, two cellos, piano/keyboard. 80’
DANCE
The Order of Things (2022) for string quartet. 25’
Natural History (2020) for flute, clarinet, piano, vibraphone, two violins, two cellos. 24’
Until the Walls Cave In (2016) for oboe, piano, string quartet & electronic playback. 23’
Common Ground (2015) for orchestra. 15’
Invisible Divide (2015) for vocalist, oboe, guitar, piano, keyboard & string quartet. 24’
All That We See (2014) for baritone saxophone, electric guitar, piano & string quartet. 19’
Dear and Blackbirds (2014) multiple versions: for string quartet, for oboe (dbl. English horn), violin, viola, cello. 10’
The Impulse Wants Company (2013) for piano quintet. 22’
San Fermin
Albums:
Arms (Strings Versions) 2024. Written, arranged. Better Company Records. 25’
Arms (2024). Written, arranged. Better Company Records. 34’ Piano-vocal score (print edition). Piano-vocal score (PDF edition)
The Cormorant I & II (2019-20). Written, arranged, produced. Better Company Records/Sony Masterworks. 49’ Full band score (PDF edition)
Live at the Fillmore (2019). Written, arranged, produced. Votiv Music. 85’
Belong (2017). Written, arranged, produced. Downtown Records/Interscope. 50’ Full band score (PDF edition)
Jackrabbit (2015). Written, arranged. Co-produced with Peter Katis. Downtown Records. 43’ Piano-vocal score (print edition). Full band score (PDF edition)
San Fermin (2013). Written, arranged, produced. Downtown Records. 55’ Full band score (PDF edition)
EPs:
Your Ghost - EP (2022). Written, arranged. Better Company Records. 10’
In This House (2021). Co-written with various artists. Arranged, produced. Better Company Records. 20’
San Fermin - Live from the Advent Lutheran Church (2013). Written, arranged, produced. Downtown Records. 11’
Other releases:
“Shiver” (2015). Co-written with Sam Amidon. Arranged, produced. Downtown Records/Nonesuch. 4’
Arrangement
Poolblood - there’s_plenty_of_music_to_go_around.zip (2024). String arrangements. Better Company Records.
Roland Faunte - “First Thing” (2023). String arrangement. ONErpm Records.
Fatoumata Diawara feat. Brooklyn Youth Chorus - London Ko (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” (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). Arrangements, producer. Votiv Music.
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’
DISCOGRAPHY
FEATURED ON
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CONTACT
General Inquiries: Sian Walden | Better Company Records
Agent (San Fermin): Ryan Farlow | ROAM
Agent (Theater): Kevin Lin | CAA