Estella is an award-winning composer and arranger of Kāi Tahu descent based in Wellington in her 4th year studying composition at the New Zealand School of Music. Music has always been Estella’s true passion. Composition has always brought her joy and has found it a powerful medium to express emotions where words fail. She is known for her distinctive voice and music that follows a strong emotional narrative. Her music often connects audiences to Aotearoa, stories that aren’t often told and tends to explore her own whakapapa as a part of her own journey of discovering her ancestry.  

Her interest in composition started at 14, thanks to her high school music teachers and has since had her music performed around New Zealand and globally. Estella plays the clarinet in addition to composing, having performed in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Orchestra and multiple youth orchestras. She also enjoys playing her own compositions from time to time, including a commission for the 2025 Kia Mau Festival where her piece ‘Journeys’ for clarinet and piano was featured.  

Estella’s compositions have been programmed by a diverse range of groups including the New Zealand String Quartet, Wellington Youth Choir, Wellington Brass Band and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. In 2024, Estella was selected as the 2024 At the World’s Edge Festival Emerging Composer-in-Residence. She received 5 months of mentoring from Eve de Castro-Robinson, and her piece ‘Lonely Peaks’ was premiered at the AWE Festival and the schools tour. In the same year, Estella was also invited to participate in the first ever APRA Classical Songhubs. A composition intensive which saw her collaborate with Oliver Brumah to compose two new works within the span of 5 days. 

Estella has had multiple achievements as a composer. She is the recipient of the 2022 NZCF-SOUNZ Te Reo Māori Choral Composition Competition, 2025 Philip Neil Memorial Prize for Composition, 2025 Finlayson Prize for Composition, was a finalist for the 2025 Todd Young Composer Awards and was a winner of the 2025 NZTrio Composition Competition. In 2025 Estella won the inaugral Finlayson Prize in Composition with her piece ‘Of Sorrows’ a composition that reflected Shostakovich's final viola sonata. From this she had her work programmed by the New Zealand String Quartet, her first ever RNZ Concert interview and obtained professional development funds to assist in forming her career as a composer. Estella is grateful for all the support that she has received so far in achieving a career in composition and is looking forward to seeing what comes next.