Ella Grace is an award-winning performer, composer, and educator based in Chicago. Ella’s musical upbringing began in Minnesota, where she was heralded as “ultra-talented” by the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, studied with Prince’s longtime lead trumpeter Steve Strand, and played in the state’s top honors youth jazz ensembles. In 2021, Ella moved to Chicago, where she later earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies from DePaul University, graduating summa cum laude in 2025. In 2024, Ella won the Chicago Music Scene Fellowship, which funded her debut album as a leader, Figments.
Ella performs frequently in Chicago, the Midwest, and beyond, both as a sidewoman and bandleader with her original compositions in a variety of jazz and jazz-adjacent styles. She has graced the stages of the region’s leading jazz venues, including the Green Mill, Jazz Showcase, Dakota, Andy’s, Crooner’s, Berlin, Astor Club, Epiphany, and the Blue Room, among many others. Ella has performed with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and toured internationally with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Ella is also a passionate jazz educator and won the 2024 Jazz Education Network Jamey Aebersold Endowed Scholarship, a special distinction for young educators. Ella has a robust private studio and teaches masterclasses and summer camps across the country to help foster the next generation of jazz musicians.
Aside from performing and composing, Ella is deeply passionate about furthering gender equity in jazz and recently completed a thesis project on the subject, which won first place Sloane Prize in Undergraduate Research at the 2024 National Collegiate Honors Conference. She has presented her research on gender equity in jazz at the Chicago Women’s History Conference, the Chicago Undergraduate Research Symposium, and the DePaul Honors Research Conference, and will be presenting her work at the 2026 Jazz Education Network Conference.