BIO

SHORT

Ellie Barber AKA Ollella’s career as a musician started early, when she sang before she could talk. Trained as a classical cellist since the age of nine, the Seattle indie-folk musician merges her technical string background with authoritative vocals and live-looping. Described as “really outstanding” by NPR Music’s Bob Boilen and “so tastefully done” by Michelle Zauner (AKA Japanese Breakfast), Ollella blends the acoustic with the contemporary, folk with pop, and tenacity with softness, pulling on influences such as Feist, Cat Power, and Sylvan Esso. She was twice a finalist in the NPR Tiny Desk Contest (2024, 2022), has had music featured in film and TV, and is a frequent collaborator with others. She finds herself drawn to music because it unlocks a particularly organic flavor of humanity – one that fits the type of world she believes in.

LONG

Ollella’s career as a musician started early, when she sang before she could talk. She has since created a life as a multidisciplinary artist as an indie-folk cellist, vocalist, songwriter, and graphic designer.

Ollella (pronounced oh-lel-uh) is the solo moniker for Ellie Barber, who trained as a classical cellist since the age of nine and now merges her technical string background with authoritative vocals and live-looping. Described as “really outstanding” by NPR Music’s Bob Boilen and “so tastefully done” by Michelle Zauner (AKA Japanese Breakfast), she blends the acoustic with the contemporary, folk with pop, and tenacity with softness, pulling on influences such as Feist, Cat Power, and Sylvan Esso. She was twice a finalist in the NPR Tiny Desk Contest (2024, 2022), has had music featured in films and TV, and is a frequent collaborator with others.

As the daughter of two parents who exercised both their right and left brains, Barber has always felt a push-and-pull in her life between art and science. Prior to committing to full-time artistry in 2020, she split her time between performing as a musician and working as an information designer at a climate research institute. Her work in climate science has been supported by organizations such as NASA, the Aspen Global Change Institute, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and published in Resources Magazine, Yale Climate Connections, and the Pulitzer Center. Her pivot towards music was the result of much introspection around how she could most authentically contribute to the world given the severity of climate change.

Barber finds herself drawn to music because it unlocks a particularly organic flavor of humanity – one that fits the type of world she believes in. Her work is ever-morphing, like herself.

PRESS

2024 - “Tiny Desk Top Shelf” from the 2024 NPR Tiny Desk Contest – link
2023 - KRCL (Salt Lake City) Executive Director votes Ollella’s debut album #18 of 2023 – link
2023 - KEXP Song of the Day Podcast – link
2023 - Sofar Sounds, New Music Alert – link
2023 - Atwood Magazine, Women’s History Month Feature – link
2023 - Glide Magazine, “Ollella Shows Resonant Cello-Based Creative Chops” – link
2023 - Illustrate Magazine, album review – link
2022 - “Tiny Desk Top Shelf” from the 2022 NPR Tiny Desk Contest – link
2022 - “Entries We Love” from the NPR Tiny Desk Contest – link
2022 - KDNK in-studio interview and performance - link