Born: 1949, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
American composer and flutist Ellen Bender (born 1949 in Brooklyn, New York) studied flute performance with musicologist Neal Zaslaw, Metropolitan Opera principal flutist Harold Bennett, and James Pappoutsakis, second chair flute with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She earned degrees from Boston University and the New England Conservatory.
Bender became a private composition and theory student of composer and flutist Robert Di Domenica, who served on the faculty and was dean at the New England Conservatory. Bender and Di Domenica later married in 1999.
Bender was a member of the faculties of the prestigious Merrywood Summer Music School in Lenox, Massachusetts; the University of Massachusetts, Boston; and the New England Conservatory. In addition, she has maintained an extensive roster of private performance and composition students at her studio outside of Boston, establishing herself as an educator devoted to all levels of instruction.
Gunther Schuller promoted Bender’s work as a composer, publishing a selection of her works under his Margun imprint. Bender has written for a wide variety of performing forces. Her catalog includes orchestral compositions such as Variations for Orchestra (1984) and Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (2001); the one-act opera of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter, with a libretto by Robert Di Domenica (1990), first performed at the New England Conservatory in 1992; Turbolenza, for chamber orchestra (2015); and numerous songs and instrumental compositions for solo performer and ensembles both large and small. Many of her works are written for flute, either solo or in ensemble, and several may be performed by flute choir.