Born in San Francisco and raised in Santa Monica, California, Eleanor Hammersly is a violist, artist, and community organizer with a commitment to making noise inside and outside the concert hall. Since picking up the viola for the first time at age nine, her musical endeavors have led her to perform throughout the United States, South America, and Europe as a spirited orchestral, chamber, and solo player. She has recently performed with the American Youth Symphony, the California Young Artists Symphony, and the newly formed Civic Orchestra of Los Angeles. This past year's performance engagements have included collaborations with Michael Tilson Thomas, cabaret performer Meow Meow, and Ray Chen and Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Festival Napa Valley's "How I See Music" educational initiative. Ella was a finalist in the 2024 American Viola Society's Orchestral Audition Competition, and has previously spent summers at the Napa, Round Top, Trentino, Green Mountain, and Tanglewood Institute festivals, holding principal positions.

Ella is currently pursuing her Masters degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Jonathan Vinocour, Principal Violist of the San Francisco Symphony. Prior to this, she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Viola Performance from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied under the late Roger Myers. She has been a guest instructor at Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and is currently a Teaching Artist at Music Mission San Francisco, a free after-school music program inspired by El Sistema.

While pursuing her music degree in Texas, she communicated the importance of university fossil fuel divestment to her peers as a leader of Students Fighting Climate Change (SFCC), the university's largest climate activism organization. SFCC aimed to raise awareness about the university's systemic role in the climate crisis while fostering a positive and inclusive environment for students to engage in climate activism. She has experience leading educational workshops, roundtables, and collaborating on large-scale marches and strikes with fellow organizations in the city of Austin. Her work culminated in May 2023 with a CBS News interview for their "On the Dot" Series, in an episode highlighting the ties between the fossil fuel industry and the financial endowments of American universities.

Ella joins the San Gabriel Valley Symphony for its inaugural season, and seeks to craft a career that exists at the intersections of the arts and community care.

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