Elise Arancio

Elise Arancio is a composer from Atlanta, currently based in Philadelphia. In 2014 she made her debut with the premiere of a string orchestra piece at Emory University. Since then, her orchestral and chamber works have been performed across the country and internationally by ensembles including the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of the USA, Sandbox Percussion, Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, Emory Junior Chamber Orchestra, and by members of the ​Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with the Rock School of Dance Education in Philadelphia, and her work was also featured as part of WHYY/PBS's series "On Stage at Curtis." Current projects include a commission from the Curtis Institute of Music for the One Book, One Philadelphia program in 2020.

Some of her recent accolades include being selected as a winner of the 2019 NorCal Music Festival Orchestra Composition Competition, 2018 NextNotes High School Composition Awards and the 2016 and 2017 National Young Composers Challenge as well as being selected as a finalist in the 2017 BMI Student Composer Awards. She has attended summer programs at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Curtis Young Artists Summer Program, Yellowbarn Young Artist Program, and Atlantic Music Festival, and was a composing fellow at the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. She joined Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra as an apprentice composer in the summer of 2018.

Her previous teachers include Richard Prior and Yinzi Kong (viola). Elise is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studies with David Ludwig, Jennifer Higdon, Richard Danielpour, and Tod Machover.