ELLEN WINTER is a Brooklyn-based artist, composer, and educator whose songwriting fuses theatrical storytelling with indie pop instincts.

In theatre, Winter (any pronouns) has carved a niche as a hybrid creative-performer in new works of surreal musicalized plays and band-driven musicals. 

This spring, she originated the role of “Choir Leader” in Ro Reddick’s award-winning Cold War Choir Practice (dir. Knud Adams, music by Reddick) at MCC and “Ethel Sonnenblick” in Pulitzer finalist Talene Monahon’s Wonder! A Woman Keeps A Secret (dir. Aileen Wen McGroddy, song by Oscar winner Mark Sonnenblick) at Northern Stage in VT. Winter’s track on these projects spanned across composition, arranging, music directing, singing, sound design, and playing live piano & omnichord. 

She was first seen doing the multi-hyphenate boogie with frequent collaborator On The Rocks Theatre Co., in their medieval apocalypse puppet pageant The Beastiary‍‍ (dir. Dakota Rose, co-composer Dorit Chrysler) at Ars Nova in 2024.

An artist with a penchant for genre-pushing work, she co-composed/wrote/directed 36 Questions (2017) with Chris Littler. It was the world’s first Broadway caliber musical podcast and starred Tony Winner Jonathan Groff (Merrily We Roll Along) and Jessie Shelton (Hadestown). She’s been on the music teams of Salty Brine, The Bengsons, Heather Christian, Dave Malloy, Machel Ross, Miranda Haymon, and Cėsxr Alvarez.

In the world of music, she collaborated with animator Fran Moore on their song/music video “So Disgusting!” released in 2025. Her cover of "Paper Roses" was featured in the Emmy-nominated Hulu show, Tiny Beautiful Things (2024), starring Kathryn Hahn. That year, her album YIKES was playlisted on Spotify’s GLOW) and her hit song “Mantras” off her debut record Every Feeling I’ve Ever Felt, rocked the #1 slot on In-Store Radio Charts for the better part of 2022. She’s collaborated with the likes of Sara Barielles, Ingrid Michaelson, Monique Moses, Mark Sonnenblick, and Softee.

Ellen is a recipient of the 2021 Bryan Gallace/Posthumous Prodigy Productions Musicians Fellowship. Residencies include Joe’s Pub Working Group, Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, Mercury Store, Ars Nova Maker’s Lab, 54 Below Verses and Voices, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, UCROSS and BarnArts. Her work's been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, Marie Claire, Interview Magazine, MTV news, and Playbill. She is currently commissioned by Ars Nova, The Alley Theater / Concord Theatricals, and EST/Sloan.

She offers private lessons in voice, composition/songwriting, music production, musical theater, and basic piano for students of all ages. As an educator, she’s worked with The New Victory Theatre, Greenwich House Music School, Little Island, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, The Performing Arts Project, and various public K-12 schools in the NYC metropolitan area. She also works with early-career/emerging songwriters and musical theater composers as a demo engineer/music producer at Period Studios in Gowanus, co-owned with Nina Ross (Softee).

Ellen lives in Brooklyn with her collection of sentimental knick-knacks and her pooch Ruby.

Theatre inquiries: farrah.cukor@unitedtalent.com // Music inquiries: charles@cyrustalent.com
Lesson & Studio inquiries: ellenwinterasst@gmail.com