Originally from Sydney, Ella has recently returned home following 9 years in England. After studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music she was awarded a Fellowship with the Sydney Symphony orchestra. She then moved to England to complete Post Graduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music. She was a chamber music Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 2008-10 and then at the Royal Academy of Music 2010-11. Ella received many awards and scholarships throughout her studies and was a prizewinner in the 2000 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.

Ella has performed with orchestras both in Australia and England since 1999. These
include the Sydney Symphony, Halle, Philharmonia and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She was also a member of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for three years.
A passionate chamber musician, Ella was the violist of the Barbirolli Quartet for 8 years. The quartet performed throughout the U.K. and internationally and as a member of the quartet she has given concerts in some of the greatest halls in the world including Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, the Concertgebouw, Cologne Philharmonie, Stockholm Konserthuset, Vienna Konzerthaus and the Lincoln Centre in New York. As well as this, the quartet appeared in major music festivals such as the Cheltenham Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Festival Aix-en-Provence and the Verbier Festival. She has collaborated with some of the finest English musicians such as violists Philip Dukes and Garfield Jackson and pianists Simon Crawford-Phillips and Steven Kovacevich. In 2009 the quartet gave a series of performances of Mendelssohn’s Octet with the Australian String Quartet. Later
that year the Barbirollis toured Singapore, New Zealand and Australia for the Royal
Overseas League giving concerts and masterclasses as well as adjudicating solo and
chamber music competitions.

During her years in England, Ella studied with some wonderful musicians including
Thomas Riebl, Gabor Takacs, Ferenc Rados, Eberhard Feltz, Andras Schiff and members of the Belcea Quartet, Quatuor Mosaiques and the Alban Berg Quartet. She in turn has given chamber music masterclasses and workshops to students of all ages and tutored chamber music at the Guildhall and Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2010 and 2011 she taught at Dartington International Summer School.
Since returning to Sydney Ella has been working as a freelance violist performing with
orchestras and in recording sessions as well as being involved in several chamber music projects. She is teaching both violin and viola and is currently the viola tutor for The Arts Unit.