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 grants.