Elena Doria Winell (b. 1998) is a composer, performer, and educator. She draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary influences to create deeply intense, personal, and multi-dimensional works via processes of intense collaboration with the intended performers. Her compositions have been described as “fundamentally dramatic" [Out to Lunch Records] and having an “expansive spirit” [Boston Musical Intelligencer], and have been performed by such luminaries as loadbang, JACK Quartet, & International Contemporary Ensemble.

Some of her musical projects include being one-half of the duo Beyond the Zero, as well as a member of Out To Lunch Records. Some past highlights include her second opera, The Little Red Hen, starring renowned Canadian soprano Rose Hegele. Some past performance highlights include singing Pierrot lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg with Ensemble Der Gestank, as well as performing with musical figures as wide-ranging as Karita Mattila to John Wetton to Butch Trucks.

Elena’s approach to teaching is focused on tailoring lessons to help students achieve their individual musical goals. She is passionate about helping students develop their technique, navigate new ways of thinking and talking about music, and finding their own unique voices while having fun with the process. Lessons are offered in composition as well as voice, piano, and guitar for people of all musical levels. Tutoring sessions are offered in harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, and ear training. Her experience in music education spans over a decade of private instruction in piano of all genres, rock/jazz guitar, and voice both contemporary and operatic.

Elena earned her Masters of Music in Composition from the Peabody Institute at The Johns Hopkins University in 2025 studying with Felipe Lara. She earned her BM in Composition from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee studying with Felipe Lara, Tina Tallon, Curtis K. Hughes, and Marc McAneny. Scroll down for contact information! Those looking for score samples can also head to the Contact Me page form.

upcoming/recent events

• May 24th, 2026 3pm: Relaunch concert of Out To Lunch Records at The Lilypad in Cambridge, MA. Premieres from an upcoming dance suite for piano and a new chamber work for soprano, tenor, clarinet, and piano.

• March 7th, 2026 7:30pm - Premiere of Groove Study, written for and premiered by Bent Wrench at Brown Memorial Church, Baltimore, MD.

• August 9th, 2025 7pm Der Gestank in Recital: Two’s Company, Three’s A Crowd! at Somerville Music Spaces, Somerville, MA.

• April 29th, 2025 7:30pm Premiere of scraps - a miniature song based on text from Emily Dickinson’s envelope poems for loadbang at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Baltimore, MD.

• April 11th, 2025 3:30pm & 7:30pm Premiere of The Cask of Amontillado - a short chamber opera with a libretto adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name by H. Cipriana at Joe Byrd Hall, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD.

scraps

Recorded by loadbang ensemble as part of their residency at Peabody Institute on April 29th, 2025 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Baltimore, MD.

This piece is about fragmentation. The poem is taken from Dickinson's collection of "envelope poems" which were literally scrawled in dull pencil on various scraps of papers and envelopes. Like most of her work, these poems did not see the light of day until after her death. The brief interjection comes from what began as my attempt at 'modernizing' the language of the poem, only retroactively realizing a) how pointless that is and b) how intensely I had projected my own immediate reality into this 'translation.'

The Cask of Amontillado

Libretto adapted from Edgar Allan Poe by H. Cipriana and Elena Doria Winell

Recorded as part of Tony Arnold's Opera Etudes on April 11th, 2025 at Joe Byrd Hall, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD.Conducted by Linus Ip

Audio & Video Recording by Yuchen Bian

In this short adaptation of Poe’s classic tale, the story unfolds with Montresor’s conscience taking on two tangible, disembodied forms, constantly whispering and conversing with him as he lures Fortunato deeper into the catacombs. As Montresor's dark plan unfolds, his inner guilt and turmoil begin to manifest through a haunting dialogue between him and his conscience, which taunts and questions his actions. After Montresor seals Fortunato’s fate, the opera takes a twisted turn: Fortunato’s voice transforms into a demonic, mocking echo, joined by a chorus of spectral voices. These voices, a blend of Fortunato's tortured spirit and Montresor’s fractured psyche, berate and taunt Montresor for his crime. The conscience now merges with the cacophony of demonic voices, amplifying his paranoia and guilt. The opera explores Montresor’s descent into madness, blurring the lines between his own voice, Fortunato’s ghost, and the eerie chorus, which relentlessly drives him to the brink of insanity, akin to the themes in Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat. The haunting sounds culminate in Montresor’s complete unraveling, as he is consumed by the very guilt he tried to bury.

The Little Red Hen

A chamber opera in four scenes and two intermezzi. Written for and premiered by Rose Hegele and Der Gestanke alongside members of the Peabody Institute and conducted by Jonathan Villegas.

We all know the story: A hen on a farm finds a grain of wheat, and decides to turn it into bread. All along the way she asks the other farm animals for help, but they refuse. When the bread is made, however, they all demand a piece of it. Typically, the story ends with the hen refusing to share her bread, keeping the fruits of her labor for herself. In Winell’s retelling, the internal contradictions and battling voices within her take over and wreak havoc upon the whole farm.

Avec la Gomme

for mixed sextet. Premiered by International Contemporary Ensemble on September 25th, 2024 as part of Polyaspora Festival: "The Future is Now Part 2”

The title is taken from the original French-language version of this quote often attributed to Igor Stravinsky: "Le compositeur travaille avec la gomme." [The composer works with the eraser.] In understanding I wanted to write very fast music for this, I realized generative processes like isorhythm and pitch-serialization, used in tandem, would be the ideal method. Thus, I began the piece by writing out all the expressions of the isorhythmic-row I wanted to use in order in every instrument and then erased and shaped from there.

Grand Guignol

for String Quartet. This piece operates in extremities. As such, it was named for the historic Parisian theater, Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (The Theater of the Great Puppet) - known more commonly as Grand Guignol - previously located in the Pigalle district from 1897 until its closing in 1962. The theater specialized in naturalistic horror shows, and today the term is used to describe graphic, amoral horror entertainment. The piece is a love letter to several works that fall under the umbrella term. Written for and premiered by the illustrious JACK Quartet on February 8th, 2024 at Griswold Hall, Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.

blood…all over my hands

for Pierrot ensemble with voice and percussion. A collage of expressions of madness throughout poetry, music, literature, and theater, presented as a path with dangerous curves. This piece was written during the first half of 2023, in which over 540 anti-Queer bills were introduced in state legislatures across the US, and, as such, is an expression of personal as well as political rage. Performed by Der Gestanke.

reaching towards, reaching from

for Pierrot Ensemble

The general progression of the piece is betrayed by its title in that the music is constantly reaching both towards and from A4, eventually becoming totally consumed by it. The form consists of the strophe, which is expository; the antistrophe, which is reactionary; and the epode, which acts to summarize and juxtapose the two. Each are imbued with non-linear presentations of the particular materials. Performed by Der Gestanke.

A Reading from the Gospel of Thomas

for two sopranos, violin, cello, & piano (2022)

Text excerpted from Gnostic Gospels. This piece documents the composer's personal re-evaluation of Christian mysticism - from viewing all Christianity as an ideology inextricably linked with American Fascism to seeing the varied strata and even finding the foundations of Universalist Liberation Theology. Performed by Avery Richards, Chloe Gardner, Brian Stuligross, Claire Bostick, & Daniel Nerger.

things being as they are

for guitar and electronics (2022)

It is too soon to know

for guitar and electronics (2022)

S O U S E

“S O U S E” for solo cello was written for and premiered by Felix Fan of the FLUX Quartet at the 2021 Virtual soundSCAPE Festival on July 19th.