Ellen Fishman is an accomplished composer based in Brooklyn, New York, whose work integrates music, technology, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her early training included piano, clarinet, and saxophone, with a strong foundation in jazz improvisation. She studied music composition at San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau.

Her music has been performed at venues such as the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Mise_en Place, Westminster Choir College, Suzanne Roberts Theater, The Performance Garage, the New Works Forum at Opera America, and ASU Kerr Cultural Center. She has collaborated with choreographer and former Martha Graham dancer Jeanne Ruddy, award-winning poets Michael Heller and Naomi Shihab Nye, renowned painter Elizabeth Osborne, and Dr. Youngmoo Kim, Director of Drexel University’s ExCITe Center.

Recent accomplishments include receiving the Opera America Discovery Grant for Female Composers, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, for her interactive opera Marie Begins. She also premiered Lark Dances, performed and recorded by the Fairmount String Quartet. Her composition StringFlo, written for movement and meditation, was released in 2023 following live sessions with yoga instructor Tara Culp and the Fairmount String Quintet. It was featured in the March/April 2024 issue of Strings Magazine and on NPR Weekend Edition.

She is currently exploring spatial audio in her compositions. Her piece Shards of Memory for piano and spatial audio premiered at the DiMenna Center in November 2024, performed by renowned pianist Marilyn Nonken. Fishman is also developing an immersive opera with longtime collaborator and librettist Julia Curcio, further expanding her work in interactive and spatial music experiences.