Dr. Ellen Sirower is a pianist, educator, and scholar currently based in Houston, Texas. She is an active performer, and has made concert appearances as both a soloist and collaborator across the United States and Asia in venues ranging from Lincoln Center (New York NY) and Peking University Hall (Beijing, China) to elementary schools, restaurants, and rock clubs. Ellen was the 2019 gold medalist in the International Keyboard Odyssiad Competition, and has placed in other local, national, and international competitions such as the Texas MTNA Competition and the Vancouver International Music Competition. Summer festival appearances include the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, the Classical Music Institute, and the PianoTexas International Festival and Academy. An advocate for contemporary music and living composers, she has collaborated with members of the Talea Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, and Density512, and has performed as a core pianist with Virago, the UT Austin New Music Ensemble, and the SoundMap Ensemble.

As a scholar, Ellen pursues research in the intersections between philosophy, music theory, and piano pedagogy with particular focuses on musical interpretation, inquiry-based teaching, and post-tonal form. Awarded a 2026 Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Texas at Austin Graduate School, her dissertation, Toward a Dialectical Approach to Teaching Post-Tonal Piano Repertoire, examines inquiry-based approaches to musical interpretation in studio pedagogy. She has presented her research nationally and internationally at conferences and universities including the College Music Society National Conference, the Texas Music Teachers Association Annual Conference, the Performance Philosophy Conference, the University of Memphis, the University of Arkansas, Zhejiang University, and Peking University. Ellen’s published work appears in Piano Magazine and American Music Teacher, and she received the Outstanding Creativity Award in UT Austin’s 2025 “Empower Your Research Pitch” competition.

Committed to accessible arts education and community engagement, Ellen founded Musical Philosophers—a philosophy of music program for elementary school students supported by UT Elementary Charter School, Texas Performing Arts, and PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization).

Ellen earned her D.M.A. and M.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music. As a Keyboard Teaching Assistant, Ellen taught over 100 undergraduate students in keyboard skills and secondary piano while serving as the administrative coordinator and core music theory teacher for UT Austin’s K–5 piano program. Ellen graduated with high honors from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with bachelor’s degrees in both piano performance and philosophy.

Photo Credit: Tzu-Chin Hsu