About Ellen Rice
Ellen is passionate about helping students learn to play music that inspires them. With an extensive background in improvisation, songwriting, arranging, and music from around the world, they are excited to share these experiences with students to create a uniquely tailored lesson experience.
Want to learn classical cello technique through arrangements of songs you know and love? Interested in incorporating popular music, improvisation, or songwriting into your practice as a classical instrumentalist? Ellen provides cello, songwriting, and beginner guitar lessons in a variety of styles, tailoring lessons to the student’s interest.
In addition to teaching, Ellen performs regularly throughout the Front Range area as a cellist, guitarist, and singer-songwriter. In addition to solo performances, Ellen is 1/2 of the duo, Cordlé & Rice, featuring fellow DVM guitar instructor, singer-songwriter JD Cordlé. Ellen is also a member of Denver-based alternative folk/chamber punk band, Fables of the Fall, performing with the group as a cellist and vocalist.
Originally from Springfield, Missouri, Ellen Rice made stops in Recife, Brazil, Washington, D.C., and Urbana, IL before making Colorado home in 2019. Along the way, they earned their M.M. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2019), and BA in Music from American University (2013).
Curious what a lesson with Ellen is like? Check out this 15-minute cello warm-up video:
Listen to a live performance of Ellen’s original song Promised Land, (guitar, vocals):