At the core of everything Porter does lies a simple but urgent question: what does our relationship with the environment actually sound like? Porter Ellerman (b. 1999) is an American-born percussionist, composer, and environmental artist based in the Netherlands. He builds his own instruments with waste and found objects, pairing them with traditional percussion and composes with environmental data and sound. What we discard and overlook is recontextualized into disarming, thought-provoking sound. His solo work draws on theater, contemporary music, and live electronics to blur the boundary between concert hall and ecosystem, challenging audiences to hear the world differently.

As founder of music collective Ear to the Earth and member of the New European Ensemble, Porter is an active presence in Europe's contemporary music scene. He graduated with special distinction from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he served as the sole percussionist in the Ensemble Academy for both years of his Master's. Porter’s published research into percussion as a tool for communicating environmentalism continues to this day in his practice. His collaborative and multidisciplinary projects consistently place community, listening, and environmental awareness at its center. They take him across the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, France, Belgium, and Italy. Collaborations with Plastic Art Performance Collective, Ear to the Earth, Cinemaximiliaan, De Voorkamer, and visual artists form a robust and socially-engaged portfolio which Porter continues to expand.