A champion of contemporary music in the US and abroad, violist Ellen Ruth Rose is currently a member of Empyrean Ensemble, the flagship new music ensemble in residence at UC Davis, and EARPLAY, the San Francisco-based contemporary ensemble, and performs regularly with other California ensembles such as the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Santa Cruz New Music Works, Left Coast Ensemble and the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players.  She has worked extensively with Frankfurt’s Ensemble Modern and the experimental ensembles Musik Fabrik and Thürmchen Ensemble, appearing at the Cologne Triennial, Berlin Biennial, Salzburg Zeitfluß, Brussels Ars Nova, Venice Biennial, Budapest Autumn, and Kuhmo (Finland) festivals.  She has performed as soloist with the West German Radio Chorus, Empyrean Ensemble, Thürmchen Ensemble, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Santa Cruz New Music Works, the symphony orchestras of UC Berkeley and UC Davis, and at the San Francisco Other Minds and Ojai Music festivals.  She has appeared on numerous recordings, including a Wergo CD of the chamber music of German composer Caspar Johannes Walter—featuring several pieces written for her—which won the German Recording Critics' new music prize in 1998.  In 2003 she created, organized and directed Violafest!, a four-concert festival at UC Davis celebrating the viola in solos and chamber music new and old, including solos from the recently published anthology The American Viola (JB Elkus & Son, 2003) and premieres of pieces for four violas by Yu-Hui Chang and Laurie San Martin.

Rose has premiered several works showcasing the viola by composers based in Northern California, including Kurt Rohde (Double Trouble, a double viola chamber concerto, 2002), Pablo Ortiz (Le vrai tango argentin, for solo viola,2001), Miguel Galperin (Projections, for solo viola, 2004), Steed Cowart (Zephyr, for solo viola 1989/2001), Edmund Campion (Melt me with thy delicious numbers, for viola and live electronics, 2003) and William Beck (Aquarium, for viola, theremin and tape, 2002).  Recent projects include performances of Kurt Rohde’s Double Trouble at the Ojai Festival and with Santa Cruz New Music Works, George Benjamin’s Viola/Viola for two violas at Zellerbach Hall and the Mondavi Center Studio Theater, a world premiere recording of Thomas Stiegler’s Unisono for two solo violas and ensemble (Wergo, to appear in 2007), the West Coast premiere of Frances White’s A Veil Barely Seen for viola and tape and performances of Edmund Campion’s Melt me with thy delicious numbers and Pablo Ortiz’s Le vrai tango argentin in Stockholm, Sweden.  She has recently begun work on a viola/live electronics project, featuring several new pieces written especially for her, with initial performances planned for Montreal and San Francisco in 2007.

Rose holds degrees in performance from the Juilliard School and the Northwest German Music Academy in Detmold, Germany, as well as a B.A. with honors in English and American history and literature from Harvard University. Her teachers have included Heidi Castleman, Nobuko Imai, Marcus Thompson, and Karen Tuttle.   She is on the instrumental faculty at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and the University of the Pacific.