Since the mid-seventies, Ellen Christi has steadily gained ground as an important contributor to American improvised music and contemporary jazz. As a composer/vocalist, Ms. Christi has worked in varying performance venues ranging from multi-media theatrical productions to solo vocal concerts. She has also been an active advocate in supporting innovative performing artists through organizations that she has co-founded or directed.

Ms. Christi has studied piano technique, composition, and arranging with Jaki Byard, an internationally acclaimed pianist/composer and a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music. She had studied the bel canto technique with Galli Campi, a coloratura singer with the Metropolitan Opera. Earlier on in her career, she studied vocal technique and movement with Jeanne Lee, an avant-garde jazz vocalist. Presently, Ms. Christi is working with vocal coach, Dr. Virgina Davidson, composer/conductor and founder of New York Treble Singers.

Ms. Christi was one of the co-founders of New York City Artists' Collective (NYCAC), a non-profit organization committed to developing creative independence for artist and fostering appreciation of visual and performing arts through educational seminars, concert productions, and record documentation and production.  She is also the founder of Network Records, an independent record label promoting contemporary jazz music.  She is currently performing and teaching master classes in vocal technique, improvisation, and movement throughout the United States and Europe.

Ms. Christi has been performing and recording with musicians in the United States and Europe for the past twenty five years. Some of the musicians she has worked with include Tom Bruno, Ray Anderson, Mark Dresser, Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman, Rashid Ali, Tony Scott, Ed Blackwell, William Parker, Lisa Sokolov, Jeanne Lee, Kenny Wheeler, Steve McCall, Rahn Burton, Roy Campbell, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, and Hans Koch.