bio

A composer, multi-instrumentalist, and prayer leader, Elana Arian is one of the leading voices in contemporary Jewish music. Elana’s music is part of Jewish life across the globe, and her compositions are sung in spiritual communities, summer camps, and synagogues from Louisville to London, from Chicago to the Czech Republic, and everywhere in between. Elana just released her fourth album of original music, The Other Side of Fear, and her compositions have been published in countless Transcontinental Music collections. Elana serves proudly on the faculty of Hava Nashira (Oconomowoc, WI), the Wexner Heritage Foundation (Aspen, CO), Shirei Chagiga (London, England), and as an instructor at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where she teaches in the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music. Elana has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, and perhaps most memorably, five separate appearances at the (Obama) White House. 

Raised on equal parts Mozart, Mingus, and Mitchell, Elana studied conducting and violin, jazz guitar, and songwriting at Yale. She has appeared on NPR’s Soundcheck, as well as on PBS’ Finding Your Roots. A sought-after studio musician, Elana maintains a busy recording schedule, working with such varied artists as Peter Yarrow, the Dirty Projectors, and Catie Curtis. She held the guitar chair on both the smash revival of Sweet Charity starring Tony award-winner, Sutton Foster, and on Kristin Chenoweth’s acclaimed For the Girls, and has worked on multiple instruments in the pit orchestras of Broadway shows. She lives in New York with her wife, Julia, and their two daughters, Maya and Acadia.