BIOGRAPHY

Elise Winkler was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. From a young age, she was drawn to the piano, and soon found her way to choir and composition. Her works tap into her passions and vulnerabilities, striving to connect audiences through shared experience. She especially loves interdisciplinary projects, believing in the power of collaboration to cultivate creative problem solving and compromise. Her music is often inspired by poets, dancers, actors, and visual artists.

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Elise has worked with many esteemed musicians and ensembles, including The Seattle Symphony, Symphony Tacoma, The Juilliard Orchestra, The New York Youth Symphony, Trio Immersio, Seattle Opera, The Dolphins String Quartet, the Talea Ensemble; oboist Mary Lynch, flutist Demarre McGill, clarinetist Paul Demers, and cellist Efe Baltacigil. Her works have been performed in venues all across the country: at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Benaroya Hall, The Pantages Theater, and Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center, among others. 

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Her residencies include Bowdoin International Music Festival, Norfolk New Music Festival, the Curtis Institute of Music's Young Artists' Summer Program, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. She has been awarded the Gena Raps Prize and was selected as a winner of the Jon Deak First Music Commissioning Competition and the Juilliard Orchestra competition.

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As a pianist, she has championed contemporary music at large. She has performed as a soloist at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre alongside The Juilliard Dance Division and as a chamber musician with The Juilliard Orchestra and The NowBeat Project, where she has also served as a composition mentor. She has performed her own works in Morse Recital Hall and The Willson Theater at The Juilliard School and Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College.

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Elise completed her Bachelor and Masters degrees in Music at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Melinda Wagner, David Ludwig, and Valerie Coleman. She will begin her Masters of Musical Arts degree at Yale University in the fall.