Mary Ellen Childs is a composer and multi-sensory artist. Graduated in Music from the University of Minnesota  and with a Master in Music from the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana, USA. She also has Scent/Olfactory studies among them in the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, USA and in the Institute for Perfumery in Grasse, France.

Mary Ellen is known for works that speak not only to the ears, but to the eyes, and even the nose. She creates distinctive sound worlds, and often writes for specific architecture or environments. In her recent years she has researched combining music and scent: the ear and the nose, creating an intimate experiences to further experiment with the interaction of the ear and nose interact. She often describe herself as ¨a composer interested in all the senses¨. 

During her time at ´ace, she worked inspired and influenced by our printmaking workshop on how does what we smell affect how we hear, and how this can evoke powerful influence in how we inhabit our bodies and our history.

ARTIST STATEMENT

A composer at heart, from a young age I was also dancing and making dances, working in theater, and avidly interested in visual art and film. As a result, my musical thinking has always been infused with a multi-disciplinary approach. In addition to my concert music, I have many works that incorporate visual material or architecture or movement for the performers. Underlying all is a deep curiosity about how our senses interact.

In recent years I have researched combining music and scent: the ear and the nose. I have set up a scent lab in my composition studio, and created exploratory projects, including a series of scent dinners at my home. I am committed to researching projects wherever they may take me.

When writing a dance piece about Lake Superior, I lived in a cabin just feet from the shore of the great lake, watching the many moods of the water. To research an opera about the human urge to fly, I spent an adventurous week at a residency in Ottawa Canada, flying: piloting a small plane, hang gliding, and more. To research a work about the arctic, I was in residence aboard a Tall Ship, sailing through the fjords of Svalbard.