Robbie Ellis is the General Manager of the Northbrook Symphony. Prior to taking up the General Manager role, he worked for the NSO as their Pre-Concert Speaker and as a host, entertainer, composer and music arranger for fundraisers.
Robbie began his career in classical music radio at RNZ Concert in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand. He hosts Sunday Afternoons with Robbie Ellis on WFMT Chicago, and for five years he was the host and producer of Introductions, a weekly feature of pre-college musicians. He is a regular pre-concert speaker with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Grant Park Music Festival, Apollo's Fire, and the Rush Hour Concerts. He has also hosted events for Third Coast Percussion, Cedille Records, Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, and the Auckland Philharmonia.
A composer by training, he has performed as a musical comedian soloist with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago and the Chicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He has also had works performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia, Orchestra Wellington, Auckland Youth Orchestra and more; and he has co-created comedy classical concerts with Fourth Coast Ensemble and the Lake Effect Clarinet Quartet. He held the 2012 Mozart Fellowship, a composer residency at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Robbie has a long background as a music director for improv, sketch comedy, and musical theater. He regularly performs at the Chicago Magic Lounge as a music director; and has worked for all of Chicago's major comedy theaters including The Second City, iO, and The Annoyance. His music director work has also taken him into Chicago Public Schools as a teaching artist with Chicago Opera Theater.
He sings his own comedy songs from the piano and has released two albums, Pumpkins and Metric System. Robbie is a graduate of the University of Auckland School of Music and lives in Chicago with his wife, son, and cat.
