Bringing New Music to Life: Commissions & Consortiums

Creating a new work is a unique, rewarding partnership. Elise brings a lifetime of hands-on musical experience to every project.

Designed for Singers & Ensembles:
Decades as a choir director and voice teacher mean voice-leading that flows naturally and feels good to sing.

Rooted in Performance Reality:
Experience as a performer and adjudicator ensures scores that are engaging for audiences, rewarding for ensembles, and practical to rehearse.

Tailored & Collaborative:
Every score is crafted around the specific voicings, skill levels, and acoustic goals of the commissioning group.

Individual Commissions & Consortiums:
In addition to custom single-ensemble commissions, Elise regularly leads co-commissioning consortiums—giving choirs of all budgets an affordable way to participate directly in the creation of new music and host a premiere in their own community.

Elise Letourneau is a Canadian composer, arranger, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose life is defined by a deep, continuous devotion to the craft of music. Whether writing for choir, chamber ensemble, or piano, directing community vocal groups, or producing organic ambient soundscapes for her imprint The ELMgrove, her work centres on living texture, human warmth, and quiet substance.

Spanning five decades of active creation, Elise’s vast catalogue bridges classical nuance, jazz harmony, and rock/pop songcraft. Her choral works have been performed by renowned ensembles across the globe—including Canada's National Youth Choir, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Toronto Children's Chorus, and The Salt Lake Choral Artists—and are published widely through Cypress Choral Music, the Canadian Music Centre, and elsewhere, with additional pieces published independently on her website at eliseletourneau.com.

An Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, Elise’s compositions have been recognized with honours including the Choral Canada Diane Loomer Award, the Choirs Ontario Ruth Watson Henderson Competition, and four consecutive nominations as a finalist for The American Prize.

Beyond the score, Elise brings a rich performance history as a pianist, vocalist, and flutist, having shared stages and studios across Canada and the US alongside respected jazz and pop artists. Formed by foundational study in composition and arranging at Berklee College of Music (B.Mus.) and creative arts education at Lesley College (M.Ed.), she recently expanded her technical range with a certificate in music production from Berklee Online. Today, from her home studio, Maison Tournesol, she creates and records new music, accepts commissions, and works with other indie songwriters. She also directs a couple of women's choirs, and coaches a limited number of private students at Alcorn Music Studios.

When she isn't writing or teaching, she can usually be found reading, creating fibre art pieces, tending her garden, preserving the harvest, or happily plotting the details of her next creative pursuit.