“With purposeful, meticulous attention to vocal production, intonation and style…Ellen brings out the very best in a chorus.” — Paul Phillips, Director of Orchestral Studies, Stanford University

“Innately musical and respected nationally for her excellence…Ellen puts the people and the music before herself.” – Dr. Jamie Hillman, Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting, University of Toronto

Dr. Ellen Gilson Voth leads an active and fulfilling career as conductor and composer, educator and keyboard artist.

Currently Voth is Artistic Director of the Farmington Valley Chorale based in Simsbury, CT, a large symphonic chorale of 80-plus members. Through her engagement with singers, collaborating with guest professionals, and partnerships with arts organizations, her vision and artistic leadership of the Chorale has garnered attention throughout the greater Hartford region and beyond. For the Spring 2023 semester, she is the Visiting Conductor of the Wesleyan University Concert Choir. Voth has also served on the music faculties of Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT; Westfield State University in Westfield, MA; Western New England University in Springfield, MA (also serving as music coordinator); Gordon College in Wenham, MA; and the Ithaca College School of Music in Ithaca, NY. Her teaching and mentoring reflects her passion for and dedication to high standards of artistry, scholarship, and integration among different areas of study.

For seven years, Voth served as Artistic Director of Novi Cantori, a professional chamber choir based in greater Springfield, MA, conducting nearly fifty performances of music from the Renaissance through the present, balancing traditional and innovative programming with new ventures in community outreach. She also served as Chorus Director of the Pioneer Valley Symphony Chorus (MA), as Director of the Symphonic Chorale at Gordon College (MA), as Assistant Conductor of the New Haven Chorale (CT), as a conductor with the Connecticut Children’s Chorus, and as choral director at Perkiomen Valley High School in Collegeville, PA. For many summers Voth served on the faculty of the Masterworks Festival in Winona Lake, IN and the Csehy Summer School of Music in Langhorne, PA. Her guest conducting invitations have been regional and national in scope, including the Rhode Island All-State Festival and OAKE National Chamber Choir in recent years.

A well-established composer, Voth’s works are published by Oxford University Press, ECS Publishing, Colla Voce, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Graphite Publishing. Her works have appeared at conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, College Music Society, and National Association of Teachers of Singing. Voth is the winner of the 2022 American Prize for Choral Composition (shorter works), for “Across the empty square”; the 2022 co-winner of the Ithaca College Choral Composition Prize, for “I had no time to hate”; the 2020 Cincinnati Camerata Composition Prize, for “Above gravity”; and the 2020 Michigan Choral Commission Consortium Award, for “Seeing the same stars”. In 2020 she was also a finalist in the ACDA Brock competition for professional composers. Current commission projects include the West Point (USMA) Glee Club; the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus; and the Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois. Recent commissions include the University of Connecticut Choirs in partnership with the University of Stuttgart, Germany; The Hartt School, University of Hartford, for the centenary of its founding; VOCE, a professional choir in greater Hartford, CT; the Shoreline Chorale (Madison, CT); Ellington High School Choirs (Ellington, CT); CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists); Cantilena: a Women’s Chorale (Arlington, MA); Central Bucks West High School (Doylestown, PA); the New Haven Chorale (New Haven, CT); the Children’s Aid Society Chorus (New York, New York); the Greater Middletown Chorale (Middletown, CT); Perkiomen Valley High School (Collegeville, PA) and the Boston Children’s Chorus (Boston, MA). Others of her works have been premiered or performed by Novi Cantori (Springfield, MA), The Choral Art Society of Portland, Maine, and the Princeton Singers (Lehigh University choral composers’ forum, Bethlehem, PA).

Voth is a singing member of CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists),  is a regular guest clinician, has been an active church musician for years throughout the Northeast, and performs frequently as a pianist and organist. Currently she is Vice Chair of Choral Arts New England, a grant-awarding agency for choirs in the six New England states, and has served in multiple roles on the CT-ACDA state board.

Voth received her doctoral degree (DMA) from The Hartt School, Univ. of Hartford (CT), where she was the recipient of the Regents’ Honor Award for graduate students. Her dissertation research was a qualitative study of the use of moveable do solfège and the piano in the choral rehearsal. Her master’s degree (MM) was from Westminster Choir College of Rider University (NJ), and her bachelor’s degree (BME), magna cum laude, was from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music (IL).  Ellen, her husband, Greg, and their daughter, Heather Joylin, make their home in West Hartford, CT.