Denise Ellis

Dr. Denise Ellis is a choral music specialist whose experience is rooted in American public school music education. Ellis has over a decade of teaching experience in the public school setting, teaching ensemble skills, music literacy, program building, and mentoring first-year teachers. 

Emigrating from the Philippines at nine years old, Ellis’ one refuge was her elementary school choir. The everyday kindness of others she encountered in her school music program is what affixed her on her musical path. Ellis believes musical communities benefit all people, no matter who and where they are, and these communities are strongest when its individuals know the power of a kind and pluralistic collective.

Ellis teaches for the Hannibal Central School District: a very small, rural, public school in upstate New York. The high school has just one choral ensemble called the Hannibal Senior High Chorus: an award-winning, non-auditioned group of students from grades 9-12. These students have a wide array of experience levels, abilities, and learning differences. The two things that these students do have in common is a love for singing, and the determination to work hard. 

Ellis holds conducting degrees from the University of South Carolina and Syracuse University, and a Music Education degree from the State University of New York at Fredonia. Coming up next for Dr. Ellis: conducting in the Chamber Orchestra of New York Conducting Workshop and Respighi Competition.