Photo by Lucy White

I grew up in Helsinki, Finland. I trained in classical violin for ten years before switching to study jazz and folk violin at Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatoire, which was also where I first started dabbling in music and sound technology.

I quickly discovered that Theatre Sound Design combined all my areas of interest and skill and began to pursue it as a career. I moved to London to study the Performance Sound degree course at Rose Bruford. After graduating in 2013, I continued training with sound companies and working as an associate to sound designer Gareth Fry.

For the last ten years I have been a Sound Designer for plays, actor-musician shows and also musicals. I love folk music and acoustic instruments are always my preference. When I write jingles or incidental music there’s likely a violin stem somewhere in the mix. 

I have also specialised in binaural sound. I was one of the Sound Operators for Complicité’s The Encounter, which won a Tony award for Gareth Fry and Pete Malkin’s sound design. In addition to winning multiple awards it was the first performance in the history of Broadway to bill Sound Operators on the same page as the performers in the Playbill. I was also the operator for ANNA at The National Theatre, have taught workshops and R&Ds on binaural sound and was the Sound Designer for Descent, a binaural audio drama by Audible.

I live in London and work internationally. With over 50 professional Sound Design credits I have worked with companies including 59 Productions, Frantic Assembly, Michael Grandage Company, Complicite, Headlong, Mischief, Robert Wilson and Audible. I was also the sound designer of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto written for Yo-Yo Ma, which had its world premiere in Chicago in 2017. I am constantly looking for new opportunities in Sound Design, and if I get to write some folk music or squeeze in some acoustic instruments I couldn’t be happier.

Press Quotes

“Ella Wahlström’s music is both spot on for the play-within-a-play and carries the right note of hysteria when repeated.” - The Arts Desk (Noises Off)

“Real-time sound processing was a key element of the central movement. Brief cello lines and glissandos were electronically looped by an offstage sound designer to produce ghostly echoes that mingled with the acoustical sounds.” - Chicago Tribune (on Esa-Pekka Salonen cello concerto)

"Some of the sounds are created before our eyes by McBurney, playing with objects, voice, body, effects pedals; others are pre-recorded and are fed into the live performance by sound operators Helen Skiera and Ella Wahlström. This aural-physical combination achieves visceral intensities." - The Guardian (on The Encounter)

"The small room is lit by a small bulb and a pair of shuttered windows, while the sound design immerses the audience and evokes the sense of being in a lonely lighthouse perfectly." - British Theatre Guide (on Sirenia)

"The short scenes are punctuated with a variety of sound effects created by sound designer Ella Wahlström. These are acoustic variants on a mix of panicky chicken sounds underscored with an industrial roar. Occasionally we hear lorries going by. All combined they create an atmosphere of itchy claustrophobia in which the human story of workers at a chicken farm dramatically unfolds." - Public Review (on Chicken Dust)

★★★★ "The lighting and sound create the perfect atmosphere" - What’s Peen Seen (on A Study in Scarlet)

"The atmosphere however is largely provided by lighting and sound score of ticking clocks, strange whistlings and clicking desert insects by Ella Wahlström and music by Annabelle Brown that also helps shape the staging." - British Theatre Guide (on A Study in Scarlet)

"While the use of music was sometimes erratic, starting and stopping suddenly, sound designer Ella Wahlstrom had moments of extreme success." - Camden Review (on Titus Andronicus)

"The sounds of war drum around us in a way that evokes real tension as well as externalising Agamemnon’s psyche." - Exuent (on The Bunker Trilogy)

★★★★★ "Every detail rings true, from the billowing smoke of kicked up dust from the ground to the creaking walls as the bombs overhead drop." - The Skinny (on The Bunker Trilogy)

Contact Information

Based in London, UK

Email: ella.wahlstrom@gmail.com

Represented by Nick Quinn, The Agency

NQ-office@theagency.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7727 1346