Laura Elkeslassy Singer, Actor & Educator

LAURA ELKESLASSY is a singer, actor and educator based in Brooklyn. Born in France, with Moroccan and Israeli roots, Laura blends Judeo-Arab, Middle Eastern and Andalusian repertoires in her music.

Education

Laura holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University and an MSc in Business from HEC Paris. She has been vocally trained by Kristin Linklater, Met Opera Baritone Mark Oswald and is currently deepening her knowledge of Moroccan Jewish Cantorship & Maqam with the Maghreb Institute for Song in Jerusalem.

Her current work focuses on reclaiming the Moroccan Jewish liturgical tradition and the North African musical heritage from a feminist standpoint.

Music Credits include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo del Barrio, DROM, Barbès, Wild Birds, La Nacional, CUNY, BMS East & Middle East Festival, The American Sephardi Federation, JCC NYC, JCC DC, CBEBK, Vassar College

Also Kane Street Synagogue, Sephardic Temple of Cedarhurst, Magen David Manhattan, Barbes, Mr Rogers, Funky Joe’s, Center for Jewish History, Feminism All Night, Let My People Sing, Jews For Racial and Economic Justice, the Mizrahi Collective, The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, The World Music Institute, among others.

Theater Credits include the National Opera of Paris, the Venice Film Festival, La MaMa ETC, Classic Stage Company, The Rattlestick Theater, Mabou Mines, The New Ohio, Target Margin Theater, HB Playwrights, Here Arts Center, and Irondale Theater. Laura is the Executive Director of L'Atelier Theatre NY, a French theater company, where she teaches and directs plays in French in New York.

Support Laura is a multiple-time recipient of Brooklyn Arts Council grants and Rise Up! Fellowships as well as a 2021 New Jewish Culture Fellow and a 2022 Rising Leader Fellow with the Open Society Foundation.

LAURA ELKESLASSY a singer, actor and educator whose music blends Judeo-Arab, Middle Eastern and Andalusian repertoires, was selected as one of the New York Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch (formerly 36 Under 36). This distinction honors leaders, entrepreneurs and changemakers who are making a difference in New York’s Jewish community.

Her latest album, “Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile,” dives deep into the history of her Moroccan Jewish family and North African Jewish singers, mostly women, of the early 20th century. She has also been active in developing egalitarian Sephardi/Mizrahi worship services in New York City and Boston.

Born in France, with Moroccan and Israeli roots, Elkeslassy lives in Brooklyn, New York.