Ennis Harris is composer, arranger, saxophonist, and flutist from Exeter, California. His music seeks to blur genre and cultural boundaries through musical storytelling. He is currently based in Los Angeles.

As a composer, Ennis enjoys writing for various settings.

He is a 2024 recipient of the BMI Composer Award for his Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra, entitled Adarna. That year, Ennis also received 1st prize in the Van Alexander Arranging Competition presented by ASMAC, for his Piazzolla-Tango inspired arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “The Lake”.

He was the 2023 recipient of the “Jeff Clayton New Note Commission Award” by the Los Angeles Jazz Society. For this Ennis wrote Images and Silhouettes, a 23 minute large-scale work for 19-piece Jazz Chamber Ensemble. The piece was premiered at the Angel City Jazz Festival.

Earlier that year, he won the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC)/USF “Prize For Emerging Black Composers” for his piece Eye In The Sky written for Big Band. In 2022, his piece Portrait Poem, written for Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Septet, won the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. He has also been commissioned by theBABAorchestra, who premiered his piece Ruggell in the fall of that year.

As a saxophonist and flutist, Ennis has performed with artists such as The Jon Hatamiya Sextet, The Jon Hatamiya Big Band, The Bill Holman Big Band, Pete Escovedo, The 7Teen Big Band, and Sammy Miller and The Congregation. In 2023, Ennis performed with Red Bull Symphonic and acclaimed producer Metro Boomin, led under the baton of maestro Anthony Parnther. He has also been a featured soloist with the San Bernadino Symphony.

Ennis has received his B.A. in Global Jazz Studies from UCLA, and an M.M. in Jazz Performance from the University of Southern California. He is continuing at the University of Southern California where he serves as a teaching assistant while pursuing his DMA.