Elana Stone is an Australian singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Her debut solo album, ''In the Garden of Wild Things'', was released in 2005 on the Jazzgroove label. Its follow-up, ''Your Anniversary'', was released in 2009, while her third and fourth albums (''Kintsugi'' and ''Married To The Sound'') were released independently in 2015 and 2024, respectively. She was also a member of the

ARIA award The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austra ...

–winning folk quartet

All Our Exes Live in Texas All Our Exes Live in Texas were an Australian folk group, consisting of Hannah Crofts (vocals & ukulele), Georgia Mooney (vocals & mandolin), Elana Stone (vocals & accordion) and Katie Wighton (vocals & guitar). The four artists combined at a ...

, in which she provided vocals and played the accordion. Outside of her solo career and her work with All Our Exes Live in Texas, Stone has worked with The Tango Saloon, and has toured with

The Cat Empire The Cat Empire are an Australian jazz/funk band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1999. For most of the band's duration, the core members were Felix Riebl (lead vocals, percussion), Harry James Angus (trumpet, vocals), Will Hull-Brown (drums), ...

Bluejuice Bluejuice was an Australian band based in Sydney, active between 2000 and 2014. The group's final line-up consisted of co-lead vocalists Jake Stone and Stavros Yiannoukas, bassist Jamie Cibej, and drummer James Hauptmann. The band released thr ...

Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson is a hip hop group from Melbourne, Australia consisting of Harry James Angus (vocals/trumpet; The Cat Empire, The Conglomerate) and Jan Skubiszewski (producer, phrase, and composer; APRA Award winner Two Hands, The Rage in Pla ...

Tripod A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...

and the

John Butler Trio The John Butler Trio were an Australian Folk music, roots-Rock music, rock band led by guitarist and vocalist John Butler (musician), John Butler, an Australasian Performing Right Association, APRA and ARIA-award-winning musician. They formed in ...

. She is currently a backing vocalist and keyboardist in the touring band for

Missy Higgins Melissa Morrison "Missy" Higgins (born 19 August 1983) is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. Her most popular singles include "Scar", " Steer", and " Where I Stood". Her Australian number-one albums are '' The Sound of White'' (2004 ...

Early life and education

Elana Stone is the elder daughter of Harry Stone, an architect, and Judy Stone, a palliative care nurse. She grew up in Sydney with her older brother, singer and actor Jake Stone (formerly of

) and her younger sister, actress Yael Stone. She undertook piano lessons while attending Balmain Public School. Stone studied music at

Newtown High School of the Performing Arts The Newtown High School of the Performing Arts is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive and specialist secondary day school in the suburb of Newtown in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is among a few performing arts and vis ...

, the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) — formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, and known by the moniker "The Con" — is the music school of the University of Sydney. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious music ...

and completed a Bachelor of Music at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

School of Music A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

in Canberra.

Career

While at university Stone met several musicians who worked with her later. She formed the Elana Stone Quartet (sometimes expanded to Elana Stone Quintet) as a jazz ensemble. In 2004 she was named Best Jazz Artist at the Musicoz Awards. She won a National Jazz Award at the 2005 Wangaratta Jazz Festival. Her debut album, ''In the Garden of Wild Things'', was released via Jazzgroove Records, which John Shand of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' described her singing as "sensational – imaginative, deft, accurate, tonally beautiful." For the album, the Elana Stone Band line-up was Brett Hirst on bass guitar, Evan Mannell on drums, James Muller on guitar and Sean Wayland on piano, Rhodes and organ. Assisting in the studio were Jeremy Borthwick and John Hibbard on trombone, Simon Ferenci on trumpet, Aaron Flower on guitar, James Hauptmann on atmospheric sounds, Zoe Hauptmann on bass guitar, Steve Marin on congas and a choir from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. By 2008, the Elana Stone Band comprised Stone on lead vocals and keyboards, Flower on guitar, Hauptmann on bass guitar and backing vocals and Mannell on drums. "Me and Zoe went to jazz school in Canberra and Ev and Baz went to jazz school in Sydney," explained Stone in an interview. In August 2008, Stone was invited by

Deborah Conway Deborah Ann Conway (born 8 August 1959) is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and had a career as a model and actress. She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi with their top-5 hit "Man Overboard". Conway pe ...

to take part in the Broad Festival project, which toured major Australian cities including performing at the Sydney Opera House. With Stone and Conway were Laura Jean, Liz Stringer and Dianna Corcoran – they performed their own and each other's songs. In 2010, Stone performed at the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...

and at

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

with Tripod in the show ''Tripod vs the Dragon''. Along with Brian Campeau, Stone also featured on

Passenger A passenger is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, ...

's 2010 album ''Flight of the Crow'', singing harmonies on the song "Month of Sundays." In 2011, Stone and Campeau formed the indie pop duo The Rescue Ships. The group released two singles, "On the Air" in 2011 and "City Life" in 2012, before breaking up in 2013. In 2012 she joined Hermitude on Triple J radio's ''

Like a Version ''Like a Version'' is a long-running weekly segment on Australian youth radio station Triple J. It involves musicians playing two songs live in the Triple J studio, one of their own songs and then a cover version. The series was created by pres ...

'', providing the vocals for their cover of Major Lazer's "Get Free". In 2014, Stone formed the folk group All Our Exes Live in Texas alongside fellow singer-songwriters Hannah Crofts, Georgia Mooney and Katie Wighton. The group has gone on to tour nationally, and win the

ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots Album In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompaniment, normally part of a larger ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. In April 2015 Stone issued her third studio album, ''Kintsugi'', which provided three singles: "

Emotions Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...

" (originally performed by

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...

), "Panic Attack" and "

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a traditional band lineup, Becker and Fagen cho ...

". Jonny Nail of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' (Australia) reviewed the latter single, which "lands somewhere between haunting, psychedelic-pop escapism and a gritted-teeth, stomping show of determination. "It's a break up song, but it's defiant," Stone explains, adding that 'it's not heartbroken'."

Discography

Studio albums

Soundtrack albums

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

(APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". ! , - ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, "Cadillac" (Katherine Wighton, Hannah Crofts, Georgia Mooney, Elana Stone) , Song of the Year , , , -

References

External links

Elana Stone website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Elana Australian jazz bandleaders Australian accordionists Australian women jazz musicians Australian keyboardists Australian women accordionists Australian women keyboardists Australian women jazz singers Musicians from Sydney Australian National University alumni People educated at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni Living people 21st-century Australian singers 21st-century Australian women singers Year of birth missing (living people)