Bio

Elise Letourneau is a multiple award-winning composer, and an accomplished songwriter, multi-instrumentalist performer, arranger, producer, and educator.

An associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, Elise won the prestigious Ruth Watson Henderson composition competition, the Choral Canada (ACCC) composition competition, and the Diane Loomer award for choral composition. For four years running she was shortlisted as a finalist for The American Prize in choral composition.

Blurring the lines between classical, jazz, and popular music, her compositions have been performed across Canada and around the globe, by well-respected ensembles including the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Canada’s National Youth Choir, the Toronto Children’s Chorus, The Salt Lake Choral Artists, the Cantiamo Girls’ Choir, and The Bach Music Festival of Canada choir and orchestra. Soloists who have performed her music include Colin Ainsworth, Leslie Fagan, Marcus Nance, and Rebecca Noelle. She is currently writing a multi-movement choral work about the unique ecosystem of Point Pelee and Essex County. Her works are available through Cypress Choral Music, Hal Leonard, Sheet Music Plus, Sheet Music Direct, and her website.

Elise performs as a solo artist, with The Fieldown Singers, and with Glamour Profession (a Steely Dan tribute band). She has shared a stage with Brian Browne, Paula Cole, Bob Dorough, Sheila Jordan, Janet Lawson, Janis Siegel, and others. She teaches composition, piano, voice, vocal harmony, and ukulele at Alcorn Music Studios, and she is the director of the Ottawa Singer-Songwriter Camp. Elise directs Voices Rock Medicine (Ottawa), a choir for female physicians, through Voices Rock Canada, based in Toronto ON. She also founded and directed 2 additional choirs: Vox Eclectica Women's+ Choir, and Canada’s first community jazz choir, Capital Vox. She is on the music faculty at Carleton University. She has released 6 CDs and 3 MP3 collections.

Elise is a graduate of Berklee College of Music (Boston MA), and earned a M.Ed. specializing in creative arts and learning at Lesley College (Cambridge MA).