Ellen Nettleton began her cello studies at age 10 with Alberta Scheider. Private teachers include Elizabeth Gottling-Mendoza and Laura McLellan in middle and high school respectively. She gained teaching experience at the young age of 14, when the orchestra director for the middle school asked her to help with the beginning 4th graders. She quickly launched a business of teaching privately after school on the side and found out she had a love for it. She has been a teacher for many studios and grew a private in-home group as well, traveling to homes where students could not otherwise make the trips to see her.
Collegiate teachers include the late Steven Shumway followed by Pansy Chang. In 2003 she won the Undergraduate Artist's Competition, and in 2004 won the concerto competition, performing the Dvorak Cello Concerto. She earned her Master's in performance studying with Bruce Uchimura at Western Michigan University, where she was given the opportunity to teach on the collegiate level for a semester and prepare students for junior and senior recitals.
After moving back to Ohio following graduate school she filled in for Ms. Chang at Miami for a semester, while also teaching for various studios and subbing in local orchestras including Lebanon, Middletown, Hamilton-Fairfield, Springfield and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2009 she won a permanent seat in the Dayton Philharmonic and stayed there for 9 seasons. After getting married and spending a few years away in South Carolina she is now back in Ohio, subbing with the DPO, playing gigs for churches and weddings, enjoying some extra chamber music and recitals when possible.
