top of page
.png){kind=logo}
@ theocote
About Laura
Paris-born, Brooklyn-based artist, Laura Elkeslassy is a singer of Judeo-Arab music. Her work draws inspiration from her Sephardi and Moroccan roots exploring North-African folk, Andalusi nubas, Ladino canciones and Maghrebi Jewish liturgy.
In 2019, Laura went digging into Arabic music theory and stumbled onto a treasure trove of family history. Laura’s ongoing journey of self-discovery–which includes forgotten ancestors, wild synchronicities found in dusty old bookstores, and the reclaiming of a lost family name–is the inspirational heart of her latest project, Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile.
Laura has performed music at countless venues including Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museo del Barrio, Joe’s Pub, Ramova Theater, Roulette, Three Dollar Bill, Wild Birds, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. She was the lead singer of the NY Andalus Ensemble for 5 years and has toured across the US, Canada, the UK and France. As a cantor, Laura has been active in developing egalitarian Sephardi practice in New York for 7 years.
Laura holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. In the theater, she has worked at the National Opera of Paris, La MaMa ETC, Classic Stage Company, The Rattlestick Theater, The New Ohio, Target Margin Theater, HB Playwrights, Here Arts Center, Noor Theater among others. In film, her work has been seen at the Venice Film Festival, and this year in One thousand and One Jewels by Ariella Aisha Azoulay at Luminor Paris, The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, Marseille and Palau Moja in Barcelona.
Laura is an experienced educator. She has taught sacred and folk music extensively, including at Yale University, Segal Performance Center, Pratt University to name a few. She was the co-founder of L’Atelier Theatre NY, the French speaking theater school of NY, where she taught acting for 9 years. She is a NYFA 2025 Fellow and a multiple-time recipient of Rise Up!, New Jewish Culture, Rising Leader Fellowships, as well as NYSCA and Brooklyn Arts Council fellowships.
@ Matthew Dunivan
Additional Practices
Theater
Laura Elkeslassy holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. Theater Credits include the National Opera of Paris, the Venice Film Festival, La MaMa ETC, Classic Stage Company, Noor Theater, The Rattlestick Theatre, Mabou Mines, The New Ohio, Target Margin Theater, HB Playwrights, Here Arts Center, and Irondale Theater.
Highlights include The Franca Rame Project at Irondale, Between the Threads at Here Arts Center, the The Workshop (NY Times Critics' Pick), at HB Playwrights Theater and The Maids at La MaMa ETC.
Laura was the co-founder & Director of L'Atelier Theatre NY for 9 years, where she taught acting and directed plays in French for a New York audience. Past productions include The Meiser and The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, On the High Road by Chekhov, La Dame de chez Maxim by Feydeau and Rhinoceros by Ionesco.
In film, she has appeared at the Venice Film Festival, and this year in One Thousand and One Jewels by Ariella Aisha Azoulay at Luminor Paris, The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MUCEM), Marseille, Palau Moja in Barcelona and in New York at the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics. The film was selected as Artforum’s Top 5 films of 2025.
@ Knud Adams
@ Matthew Dunivan
Workshops & Classes
Laura Elkeslassy is an experienced educator who teaches Judeo-Arab folk singing and Moroccan liturgy in universities, cultural institutions, synagogues and performance centers.
Laura has taught at Yale Institute for Sacred Music, Pratt Institute department of Performance Studies, Segal Centre for Performing Arts in Montreal, Let my People Sing at Isabella Friedmann, Kavod Boston, Kol Tsedek Philadelphia, Feminism All Night, My Jewish Learning, Limmud UK, Hebrew Union College, Social Justice Roundtable among others.
She was also the director of L'Atelier Theatre, a NY-based French Community Theater where she taught Acting for 9 years.
Cantorship
As a cantor, Laura has been active in developing egalitarian Sephardi practice in New York, over the last seven years.
In collaboration with Natalie Haziza, she led the first Egalitarian Sephardi/Mizrahi Yom Kippur service in Boston in 2019 with the support of Kavod Boston and the first in person Rosh Hashana Egalitarian Sephardi/Mizrahi service in NYC in 2020 with the support of the JFREJ Mizrahi Caucus.
She was the co-founder of the Egal Sephardi Kehilla of NY, where she has organized and led High Holidays, Shabat, Selichot, Baqashot services with community members for years, in partnership with JVP, If Not Now, JFREJ BIJOCSM Caucuses, drawing hundreds to Egal Sephardi practice.
bottom of page