Elizabeth Gartman (b.1996) is a composer and soprano currently based in New York City. With compositions described as “refreshingly absurd” (The Washington Post) and “innovative” (Twin Cities Arts Reader), Elizabeth’s music calls attention to the implications behind the vocal instrument paired with the physical body. Her work also explores themes of process in performance, as well as active listening and response. Elizabeth has been commissioned by Washington National Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, New Chamber Ballet, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Percussion Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, Ligament Duo, InfraSound Ensemble, Ensemble Chemie, the Why Collective, NYC Virtuoso Singers, Pax Duo, and others. Her work has been received internationally at venues from National Sawdust, Mark Morris Dance, Salzburg Stadtgalerie Lehen, the Cell Theatre, to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Elizabeth’s hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, among others.

In 2023, Elizabeth was selected as a composition fellow with American Opera Projects at the Kennedy Center. Later that year, Elizabeth received Honorable Mention for the Darmstadt Ferienkurse Kranichsteiner Musikpreis. In 2022, Elizabeth was named Runner-Up of Beth Morrison Project’s Next Gen Competition for emerging opera composers with her one-act opera It is a Comfort to Know, written with frequent collaborator librettist Susan Bywaters. The year prior, Elizabeth was awarded the William Schuman Prize for Most Outstanding Score in the BMI Composer Awards for her work [Weight], another collaboration with Bywaters. Additional accolades include Manhattan School of Music’s Carl Kanter Prize for Orchestral Composition (First Place), the Giampaolo Bracali Award for Composition, two finalist awards with the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Competition, the Theodore Presser Undergraduate Music Award, the Judith Life Ikenbery Award, the Geraldine B. Cooke Opera Scholarship, and the Ruth DeYoung Kohler Scholarship for Artistic Excellence.

As a performer, Elizabeth is dedicated to the contemporary dramatic stage, with a background in classical voice and a current emphasis on new works. She has been received as both a principle and ensemble singer on the dramatic stage and as a concert soloist. Recently, Elizabeth was received as a soprano soloist and chamber ensemble member at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, the LGBT Center in New York, and the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center. In 2018, Elizabeth was featured as the principle role of "Bibi" in a workshop production of PRISM; a three-act opera written by Ellen Reid and produced by Beth Morrison Projects.  Later that year, Elizabeth attended Songfest in Los Angeles as a Young Artist and Vivace Summer Opera in Vancouver.

The 2023-2024 season includes premieres with the Washington National Opera with the American Opera Initiative, New Chamber Ballet, and NYC Virtuoso Singers. Frequent collaborator librettist Susan Bywaters and Elizabeth are in the early stages of development for an evening length opera commissioned by Guerilla Opera, following their success of opera It Is a Comfort to Know (Beth Morrison Projects) and chamber pieces When You Leave Me, and [Weight], among others. Elizabeth serves as a faculty member in composition and theory at both the Special Music School at Kaufman Music Center and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division in New York City.

Elizabeth received her Master of Music degree in composition from Manhattan School of Music after earning Bachelor’s of Music degrees in both composition and vocal performance at the University of Illinois. Compositional instructors and mentors have included Susan Botti, Missy Mazzoli, Dr. Reynold Tharp, and Dr. Carlos Carrillo. Voice instructors include Lucy Shelton and Dr. Ollie Watts Davis.