Like many classical performance majors, Seattle indie-folk musician Ellie Barber, now known as Ollella (oh-lel-uh), spent her college years performing in juries at the end of each semester. A jury is a rigorous assessment—a solo performance in a concert hall where students showcase pieces before a panel of judges to evaluate a musician's skill and progress. Barber remembers these starkly:

"I grew up playing the cello immersed in the culture of classical music, which is rooted in perfectionism—you are taught to seek perfect intonation, perfect shifts, perfect tone. You're essentially graded on how well you can replicate someone else’s creative work. During a jury, even a minor mistake—a note landing slightly sharp or a shift lagging during a quick passage—would cause my mental state to crumble. The entire performance felt ruined; I would self-sabotage. It felt over."

This mindset is what Barber confronts in her sophomore release, Antifragile. Now leading an indie-folk band as a singing-cellist, the innovative nature of her craft has taught her to embrace the imperfections in her process. “I’ve gotten really good at messing up,” she confesses playfully. With few examples to look to while developing her sound, Barber’s experimentation has led to a unique blend of her influences, ranging from the delicacy of acoustic folk to the grit of alt-rock. Antifragile explores the fear and excitement of pursuing an uncharted path, and the mental resilience that emerges as a result of it.

Ollella is a two-time finalist in the NPR Tiny Desk Contest (2022, 2024), and her 2023 debut album received acclaim from KEXP, Spotify editorial playlists, Glide Magazine, Atwood Magazine, and earned a spot as KRCL's #18 album of 2023. Antifragile is a maturation of her debut, deepening her collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Cunningham while introducing new talents such as Sean Lane on drums (Heart, Perfume Genius) and horn arrangements from Willem de Koch (Fleet Foxes, The Westerlies).

The Ollella Project is a fiscally sponsored project of the Allied Arts Foundation.