Elizabeth Foster Comninellis (b. 1986) is a composer, singer, and pianist. She completed her doctorate in music composition at the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. She holds a master’s degree in music composition from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a bachelor’s degree in music composition, with an emphasis in vocal and piano performance, from the University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. She has studied under acclaimed composers Yevgeniy Sharlat, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, and Carter Pan.
Comninellis is the composer-in-residence for the Boulder Symphony. Her most recent work, Fire and Glass, was premiered by the orchesetra in December 2019. The ensemble also commissioned and premiered her symphonic works, Rose Deep, featuring Comninellis as vocal soloist, in November 2017, and As Lightning Flashes in April 2017. She has been commissioned by a number of new music initiatives, recently the Arapahoe Philharmonic for their December 2018 holiday concert and the Beethoven Concert Series for its spring 2018 season. Comninellis was also commissioned in 2016 by Tetractys New Music, for which she wrote Lady Wisdom and Solomon. Her piece White Birds, for clarinet and electronics, was presented at the 2015 New York Electroacoustic Music Festival. Her percussion trio, Bringing in the Boat, was chosen for the Women Composers of Hartford’s 2015 international score call. She was awarded the Levy Graduate Composition Prize for her chamber work, Flight, in 2011, and was a recipient of the Kent Kennan Fellowship for music composition at the University of Texas at Austin from 2013 to 2017.