Artist Profile: Eliane Elias
Do you like a good love story? Well, we have a musical treat for you. Eliane Elias is a triple-threat in the jazz world – she’s a songwriter, singer and pianist who blends her Brazilian roots and sensuous, alluring voice with her virtuosic instrumental jazz, classical and compositional skill.
Not only is she opening our 2019/20 season on September 30, she’s just released a critically acclaimed orchestral album, Love Stories, that you can be one of the first to hear live!
Love Stories was recorded in Brazil and in London at Abbey Road Studios and debutted at #1 on iTunes, with alluring Brazilian classics, heartfelt originals and a nod to one of her favourites, Frank Sinatra. All tracks on the album feature Eliane on piano and vocals in English.
Praise for Love Stories:
“Elias’ intoxicating vocals emote the ambient calm of a forest after a soft rain; her vibrancy is a force unto itself. With powerful artistry, her naturally prodigious talent is even stronger as the years pass—a feat capable only by the true elites of the musical world.” ***** – DownBeat
“Love Stories is both substantial and relatable. The mood it creates and the place it takes you to are like a vacation you wish would never end.” ****1/2 – All About Jazz
“Eliane Elias is one of the queens of making the most out of less as she keeps it soft, simple and sotto on this orchestral album tribute to the classic summit meeting between Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim…Songs and moods that are tall, tan, young and lovely.” – Jazz Weekly
“The Brazilian pianist and singer Eliane Elias commands the keyboard with a forceful two-handed muscularity that belies her image as a blond older sister of the mythical Girl From Ipanema. The more percussive her pianism becomes, the more she opens up a song and reimagines it in what might be called a romantic carnival groove.” – The New York Times
"... what distinguishes Elias as one of today's leading bossa nova interpreters is her superb musicianship, the way she floats above the rhythm and meshes her vocals with her robust jazz piano accompaniment. *****" – Associated Press
"Elias' strength's as a jazz artist, combined with her roots in São Paulo, make her one of the most impressive interpreters of jazz-linked bossa novas, sambas and choros..." – Los Angeles Times
"Eliane Elias is of a generation of aggressive pianists who attack music like a lioness attacking its prey, at the same time expressing a tenderness within the core of her passion that at times has brought me to tears." – Herbie Hancock
Eliane is a multi-GRAMMY winner who has sold over two million records over the span of her career and we’re thrilled to welcome her as our 2019/20 season opener.