Committed to pushing the boundaries of harp performance, Jennifer R. Ellis (D.M.A. University of Michigan, M.M. Cleveland Institute of Music, B.M. Oberlin) believes in taking the harp off its pedestal and using the instrument in new, unexpected ways. She was the first harpist accepted to the Bang on a Can, Splice Institute, and Fresh Inc. summer festivals. She was a 2014 Future Music Lab fellow at the Atlantic Music Festival where she used the IRCAM's motion sensor technology to create Weav-Weav-Weaving, a piece for harp and interactive electronics. She specializes in improvisation and extended techniques and has taught workshops on how to write for harp at UM, UMass, Cleveland State, University of Hartford, Nief Norf, AMF, Banglewood, and others. As a performer, she is the recipient of the Alice Chalifoux Prize, Rackham Centennial and Graduate fellowships, ATT Foundation and Oberlin Conservatory Deans’ scholarships and has played with Atlantic Music Festival, Britten Pears Emerging Composers Residency, Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts, American Wind Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra Institute, and Texas Music Festival. She performs with saxophonist and UMass professor Jonathan Hulting-Cohen as the Admiral Launch Duo. She was a 2014-2015 University of Michigan Engaged Pedagogy Initiative Fellow and has used her studies in Oberlin’s social entrepreneurship and CWRU’s nonprofit management programs to inform her community music work.