Elaine Mitchener

Elaine Samantha Mitchener MBE (born 1970) is a British experimental singer, composer, and dancer. A member of the avant-garde group Apartment House and the electroacoustic act Rolling Calf, she was born in London to Jamaican parents.[1] She attended the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London[2] and was later mentored by opera singer Jacqueline Straubinger-Bremar.[1] Her 2017 "cross-disciplinary music piece" Sweet Tooth debuted at St George's, Bloomsbury. Commissioned by the Bluecoat Arts Centre, the International Slavery Museum, and the Stuart Hall Foundation, it pertains to slavery in the British Empire, with a focus on the sugar industry.[3] In 2021, she performed NAMES II—a "roll-call of the 2,000 enslaved African people owned by an 18th century Jamaican sugar planter"—at the British Art Show.[4] Mitchener is an associate artist at Wigmore Hall until 2026.[1]

Mitchener was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to music.[5]