IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Ellen’s work as a composer and workshop leader has taken her to classrooms up and down the country. In secondary schools, she facilitates group and individual composition on instruments (including voice), notation software, DAWs and classroom percussion working with excited students with diverse musical abilities. Most of this work is commissioned by Music in the Round, with whom she has developed their hugely popular KS3/KS4 composition project, supporting 100s of young people to find their creative voice. She has co-written multiple resources used by students and teachers up and down the country and develops these and the wider project year-on-year through an action-research cycle.
IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Ellen’s work in primary schools integrates singing, composition and classroom percussion to co-create new music in the classroom with the children, often inspired by live music performed throughout the project by Ellen or her collaborators. Most recently, she has worked on placemaking projects with Burnley Youth Theatre and on storybook projects with Music in the Round. She has co-written multiple resources used by teachers up and down the country and is currently developing these through an action-research cycle with Music in the Round.
IN THE COMMUNITY
Ellen’s work in the community has included work with Streetwise Opera, Bradford Cathedral, Bradford Heritage Recording Unit Archive, Anchor Project for asylum seekers, Sharakat project, Khidmat project and Indian Women’s Community. This work has included archival research, recording oral histories, making soundscape installations, co-writing songs (for mixed voices and orchestra) and facilitating community workshops and events. Ellen has led family events for the Royal Northern College of Music around music for videogame controllers, and was the Music Director for Contemporary Music for All (CoMA) Manchester from 2020 to 2024.
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Ellen has delivered guest lectures on collaborative composition or composition in Education & the Community for: Royal Northern College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Leeds Conservatoire and University of Sheffield. She has taught 1:1 composition lessons for undergraduate and MA students at the RNCM and group composition seminars at the RNCM and University of Sheffield.
Ellen regularly delivers composition teacher training for Music in the Round from Early Years through to KS4 at Music Hubs and schools across the country.
Ellen Sargen 