BIO

Mehana Ellis is a first-year master's student of Prof. Anton Nel, studying Piano Performance at the Butler School of Music (University of Texas at Austin). As an undergraduate Music major, she studied with Betty Woo at UC Berkeley and previously with Annamarie McCarthy as a Pre-College honors student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Mehana was named a Ross McKee Young Artist in the 25th Annual Ross McKee Piano Competition, Grand Prize winner of the 2nd Elena Leonova International Young Pianists Competition, First Prize winner of the 2025 Triumph Music Festival Rachmaninoff Concerto Competition, and received UC Berkeley's Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Scholarship, Austin F. Williams Prize in Piano Performance, Roslyn Schneider Eisner Prize in the Creative Arts, Bernece B. Lyon Memorial Prize, and Joan C. Reutinger Prize.

At UT Austin, Mehana has been awarded the Elizabeth Anne Tucker Centennial Scholarship, Ching and Man-Li Yew Scholarship for Classical Piano, and the Alamo City Endowed Scholarship for Pianists.

Mehana first studied with Prof. Nel at the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2024, where she performed in a masterclass with Mikhail Voskresensky. She has also participated in the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and International Music Festival of the Adriatic. She has performed at 92NY, Harris Hall, SFCM’s Bowes Center, Academy of Music (Philadelphia), Carnegie Hall, and abroad in Austria, England, France, Italy, Serbia, and Slovenia. Aside from solo performance, Mehana enjoys presenting lecture-recitals and chamber music, having performed the Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor and Dvorak Piano Quintet in A major.