Ellis studied at University College, Oxford, graduating with Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degrees.
[2] Her DPhil was awarded in 1991 for a doctoral thesis titled "La revue et gazette musicale de Paris, 1834-1880: the state of music criticism in mid nineteenth-century France".
[3] Ellis's first post in her academic career was as a junior research fellow in French studies at St Anne's College, Oxford[1] Then, from 1991 to 1994, she lectured with the Open University.
[1] She was additionally the inaugural Director of the Institute of Musical Research, which was then based at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, between February 2006 and July 2009.
[10] Ellis's research centres on the cultural history of music in France in the long nineteenth century.