Now at home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, California native Jane Ellen has traveled extensively. Her early years were spent in private schools at home and abroad. For nearly a decade she worked in a number of musical theatre productions, and played in various jazz and variety bands (including her own).

Jane holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico (UNM) where she was graduated in 1992, summa cum laude, with distinction, having double majors in Music Performance (Piano) and Religious Studies. As an undergraduate she was awarded membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI), Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges, and the Golden Key Honour Society. Jane was also the first recipient of the UNM Friends of Religious Studies Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. As a graduate student she received a Graduate Tuition Fellowship and completed 15 hours toward a Master of Music degree in music composition.

Currently, Jane is currently working as a freelance composer, lecturer, educator, and web designer. She holds several professional memberships including American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); SAI Composer’s Bureau (serving as National Director); MTNA/Professional Music Teachers of New Mexico (Professional Certification); HTML Writers Guild; International Webmasters Association; and the Alamo Society. She has also been included in various biographical references including: Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in the World 21st Century, Who’s Who in Classical Music (19th ed.), 2000 Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century, and 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century. Involved in church music ministry for 25 years, she continues to serve as substitute organist at her parish church.

Jane has received annual awards from ASCAP since 1990 and has won six national competitions, as well as one competition on the local level. Her Ritual Postlude, a winning composition in the SAI Centennial Convention Competition, was premiered at the convention in Dearborn, MI in August 2003, and subsequently published in the Centennial Supplement Songbook. In 2000 she was commissioned by the Canossian Daughters of Charity, F.d.C.C., to compose a hymn on the occasion of the canonisation of St. Josephine Bakhita. This piece, Lead Us To Christ Jesus, is currently being performed around the world in three languages. Other commissions include Danse des Esprits, an organ work for the American Guild of Organists’ District VII Regional Convention 2003; the anthem Hearts and Hands United (text by Claire Roth [ASCAP]), written for the 2001 Celebration at New Life Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque; the piano work Images of Rome, an MTNA Foundation commission for the state of New Mexico, 2000; the anthem Sing to the Lord, written for the 1999 New Organ Dedication Concert at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Albuquerque; a woodwind quintet, Elegy for the Children of Sarajevo, for the 1992 New Music Across America Festival; as well as pieces for various ensembles and performers.

Dancing in Deep Heaven, a chamber orchestra suite based on the writings of C.S. Lewis, was presented as part of the annual C.S. Lewis Summer Institute at Cambridge University, England; another piece inspired by Lewis, Unknown Gardens, for cello and piano, was premiered in 1996 and performed again in March and April of 1998. The conservatory Centro Musical Dinâmico, affiliated with the Colégio Dinâmico in Goiás, Brazil, performed several of her chamber works in 1999; The First Snowfall, for SSA choir, was recently performed in Canada and Hong Kong, while The Water is Wide, for SA choir, was performed in Australia. Several of Jane’s chamber works were featured in a class taught by musicologist Maria Sanchez, Ph.D., at the Universidad de los Andes in Venezuela in the summer of 2003.

Composing seriously since 1986, Jane Ellen has more than 40 pieces published and a catalogue of over 300 works. These include works for chamber orchestra, choir, piano, violin, cello, woodwind quintet, string trio, voice, and other chamber ensembles. An archive of her compositions is maintained by the UNM Fine Arts Library. She has collaborated with playwright Christina Hamlett on several theatre projects, including the two-act musical The Last Days of Indian Summer and works frequently in collaboration with lyricist Claire Roth (ASCAP). She recently composed the theme for the documentary The Man Who Lost the Civil War; as well as for the internet radio show, Sonic Soaps; the children’s educational radio program, Boombox Classroom; and is currently working on a two-act musical, Burying Mama, with playwright Kathleen Matthews.

Jane also collaborates on scripts for the national award-winning children’s radio program Boombox Classroom. She has served as script assistant for fourteen episodes with producer Marty Ronish including an episode on Music of the American Civil War in which Jane made a guest appearance. Her poem, Reenactment, was published in both print and audio editions by the International Library of Poetry in 2001, and her portfolio as a professional web designer is growing.

An avid history buff, Jane spends much of her time researching and presenting lecture programs on her favourite topics: The Dead Sea Scrolls; Mediaeval Music; Hildegard of Bingen; Joan of Arc; History of the Opera; The Alamo: History, Myth and Music; Music of the American Civil War; Music in the World of Anne Frank; Music of World War II; and Popular Music Appreciation. When not engaged in musical pursuits she enjoys old movies, classic mystery and adventure novels, and studying Italian.