Ella Jackson explores the intersections of sound, identity, and power, with a particular focus on the voice, memory, and cultural geography. Growing up in the distinctive bi-cultural environment of the former American sector in Berlin, she developed a deep awareness of how history leaves its mark on places and communities. This perspective shapes her research into the spoken and unspoken expectations placed on musicians of different identities, and how multicultural communities navigate both challenges and possibilities.

Ella graduated with a first-class honours BA in Music from the University of Oxford (St John’s College), where she developed a passion for choral music. Immersed in Oxford’s chapel choir tradition, she carved out space for creative collaboration and personal growth, taking up choral conducting — an experience that continues to inform her approach to musical leadership. Alongside her conducting, she maintained her piano practice and occasionally returned to the saxophone.

Her final papers at Oxford ranged from ethnographic research on how Germany’s memory culture shapes the mobility of Israeli and Palestinian musicians in Berlin, to the gendered dynamics of choral leadership, and the role of intimacy in popular music performance.