Biography
Conductor Ellie Slorach is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kantos Chamber Choir and Engagement Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She specialises in large scale multi-media and educational projects across all genres including orchestras, operatic, choral, and dance performances.
Based in Manchester, she continues a strong presence in the North of England as she begins the 2024/25 season with performances with the Orchestra of Opera North in September in and around Leeds. In October, she revisits the BBC Philharmonic for two separate projects including the launch concert for this year’s BBC 10 Pieces. Throughout December, she returns to the Royal Northern Sinfonia in Gateshead for a run of Christmas concerts with a selection of programmes. She will also be conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra three times during the 24-25 season.
In 2025, she will conduct the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for the first concert performances of Jonathan Dove's new opera Uprising in Saffron Walden, Glasgow and Edinburgh in collaboration with Glyndebourne. Other orchestral returns include a tour with Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and a live music to film project. She has also received numerous re-invites to appear with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Manchester Camerata. In February 2025, Ellie will be returning to Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, where she held the position of Assistant Conductor in the 2021/22 season, for performances of music by Stéphane Orlando, collaborating with hip-hop and break-dancers from the dance company No Way Back.
Equally at home in the choral repertoire, Ellie will perform with Huddersfield Choral Society – where she holds the position of Associate Choral Director. In November she will be debuting with the Sansara Choir, with whom she will collaborate again in December and in May 2025 she will be leading the Dunedin Consort Choral Weekend. Finishing the season, she will return to Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in June. Debuts of the season include City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonia Smith Square, and the Estonian National Male Choir.
Highlights of previous season included her debut at the BBC Proms at The Glasshouse Gateshead with the Royal Northern Sinfonia as well as debuts with Matthew Bourne’s ballet production of Edward Scissorhands at Sadler’s Wells. Ellie also filmed a multi-media concert with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and she was selected to film with the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers for the new season of the acclaimed BBC 10 Pieces.
Previous seasons have included productions with Northern Opera Group, including Händel’s Silla in 2022, and the world premiere production of Lliam Paterson’s Sherlock Holmes and The Sign of Four at the Leeds Opera Festival in 2024. She was Co-Musical Director for the Royal Opera House’s production of Lost & Found at St Pancras International Station in 2022, and in 2023, she was Assistant Conductor for Opera Holland Park’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.
In 2015, Ellie founded Kantos Chamber Choir – a trailblazing vocal ensemble at the cutting edge of choral singing in the UK. She devises unique, innovative, sell-out performances in venues ranging from concert halls to nightclubs. This season, they will be recording the album 'In Your Dreams'. Kantos has an artistic partnership with Manchester Camerata.
Ellie studied Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music and was awarded Associate Membership (ARNCM) in 2023. She previously studied Music at the University of Manchester.
