A dual citizen (UK/USA), Evelyn Ficarra was born in California in but has spent most of her life in Britain. She studied composition with Jonathan Harvey and Peter Wiegold at the University of Sussex, receiving her MA in 1986, and also studied at the National Film and Television School, graduating in Screen Music in 1994. She then had several years teaching and freelancing as a composer and sound editor, before returning to academia in 2005, having been awarded a Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley, where she is currently working towards a PhD.

Ficarra's work has received support from the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Arts Council of England, the London Arts Board, the Sonic Arts Network, the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, the Hinrichsen Foundation and Poems on the Underground. She has had composer residencies at the International Electronic Music Studio (EMS) in Stockholm (1993) and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2004.) Her works have been short-listed for the Prix Noroit, Bourges and Luigi Russolo competitions. Her music has been heard in various formats (in concerts, theatres, music festivals, film festivals, television and radio broadcasts) in the UK, Europe, the Americas and the Far East. Her solo CD Frantic Mid-Atlantic was released by Sargasso in 1999.