Elysia Biro

Some artists arrive with a sound. Others spend a lifetime discovering it. For Elysia Biro, that journey began long before festival stages or recording studios, shaped instead by nature, curiosity and an unwavering desire to understand music.

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Elysia Biro grew up surrounded by old-growth forests and rugged coastline.

“That was my whole childhood, me and my sister playing in the forest.”

Nature still echoes throughout her music today.

“Being in such an incredibly beautiful area was so inspiring. Just being amongst nature, I think, is a huge part of my artistry and my soul.”

Biro says she grew up in a “very music-filled home.” Her father was always playing records, her mother played guitar, and family gatherings often ended with all the women in her family singing together.

By the age of four, listening became playing as Biro began studying classical piano. More than performance, she was driven by a genuine desire to understand music itself.

“I always enjoyed studying music just to try and learn as much as I could from history.”

She was drawn to the Romantic and Impressionist composers, finding lasting inspiration in the harmonic richness of Chopin and Debussy. More than technique, she wanted to understand how composers thought, how harmony evolved, and how each generation of musicians built on those who came before them.

That same curiosity eventually led Biro to earn a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies before completing a Master’s degree in Music at the University of York. Rather than narrowing her musical world, each new chapter seemed to widen it.

Alongside her classical training, another musical language was quietly taking shape. Throughout Elysia’s childhood, her father played jazz records spanning the 1920s through to contemporary artists. Long before she ever attempted to play the music herself, Biro had already spent years listening.

“I think I sponged it all up and absorbed a lot of it. It was really a big part of my musical upbringing. I just hadn’t necessarily played it myself.”

When she finally stepped into that world, it wasn’t virtuosity that first captured her imagination. It was freedom.

“What really drew me to wanting to learn more jazz was the improvisational aspect of it. I loved the idea of just being able to sit and play and not necessarily playing a certain song, but just to be able to improvise. And that’s such a big part of jazz, just being able to improvise and to have the piece be different every time.”

Rather than replacing the classical foundation she had spent years building, jazz gradually became part of it. It shaped the harmonic language, melodies and emotional palette of the songs she was beginning to write.

“I was really falling in love with songwriting. And so I think naturally, as I learned more and more in the jazz world, I think that also slowly integrated itself into my songwriting in different capacities. And that was just the harmony or different chords, voicings, even the melodies. I think in so many different aspects, it started to influence my writing as well.”

She immersed herself in the work of Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Norah Jones and countless others, studying not only their musicianship but the many different ways they approached the same art form.

“I was also just really inspired by how incredible so many of these musicians were.”

As Biro’s musical world continued to expand, so too did the artists who shaped it. One she returned to time and again was Joni Mitchell, whose songwriting has inspired generations of artists and helped redefine the possibilities of folk, jazz and contemporary music.

Like many listeners, Biro first discovered Mitchell through Blue, but it was the 2000 orchestral recording Both Sides Now that became the album she returned to most. Rich with jazz harmony and sweeping string arrangements, it spoke directly to the musical world she had already begun to build for herself.

“The first record that I really, really spent a lot of time with though, was actually her 2000s version of Both Sides Now, especially because there’s a lot of beautiful renditions of standards on that album. I just think that it shows such a different rich side of her voice… I just fell in love with the harmony and everything on that album.”

The admiration eventually came full circle. Years after first discovering the record, Biro found herself working with acclaimed arranger Vince Mendoza and developing a mentorship with producer Larry Klein—the very collaborators whose artistry had helped shape one of her favourite albums.

“It was such a dream of mine to work with them and I had the chance to this year. Larry’s been a really incredible mentor for me as well and so it feels very special and full circle in that way.”

For Biro, however, the album’s lasting impact extends beyond its celebrated production and orchestral arrangements. It is Mitchell’s songwriting—its lyricism, emotional maturity and perspective—that continues to resonate.

“I think Both Sides Now as a track is such an incredibly mature track to have written in her young 20s and to have that kind of outlook on life at that point is really amazing… I’ve been doing it on this tour because I think really this last EP that I put out was a lot about considering life and growth. And so I think listening to that song, the themes really resonated with me in the same way of the things I was thinking about on this EP. So it’s been really special to perform that one live.”

Biro is part of a generation of artists redefining what contemporary jazz and singer-songwriter music can be. Rather than treating genres as boundaries, many of today’s young musicians move effortlessly between jazz, folk, pop and soul, drawing from each without feeling the need to belong exclusively to any one tradition.

“I think it’s one of those things where sometimes it’s hard to label music in a certain genre, but I think especially nowadays… I’m so inspired and so grateful to have been influenced by so many different places that of course naturally that’s going to be infused in your music in some way.”

She sees herself as only a small part of a much broader movement, one led by women who continue to expand the possibilities of the genre while inspiring the next generation in much the same way Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Carmen McRae and Patricia Barber once inspired her. Today, artists like Olivia Dean and Laufey are introducing younger audiences to jazz-influenced songwriting, live musicianship and timeless arrangements, proving there is still room for music that values craft as much as immediacy.

“It’s really special to be a small part of it… it’s also so inspiring to see women in the forefront like that… I know those kind of musicians were hugely helpful to me growing up… I hope that that is helpful and gives that same kind of feeling for a lot of young people… I’m hoping that more people can kind of, via that, find some of these records that maybe they wouldn’t have per se.”

In an era increasingly shaped by algorithms, social media and artificial intelligence, Biro believes many artists are rediscovering the value of recording together in a room, allowing real instruments—and the imperfections that come with them—to become part of the performance.

“I think there’s a lot of music that kind of seems to be pulling back to… in the room recordings and it being organic instruments… it’s really fun to kind of go back to what can we create in a really organic way with real instruments the same way that you would hear it if you were in the room.”

That philosophy runs throughout Biro’s debut EP Running From Nothing and continues with her latest single, Reignite, where jazz harmony, organic arrangements and intimate songwriting remain at the heart of her sound. While Running From Nothing explored themes of self-discovery and reflection, Reignite looks outward—embracing confidence, renewed purpose and the courage to move forward. That same sense of musical curiosity continues to shape the full-length album Biro is currently writing for a planned 2027 release.

Now based in Los Angeles, Biro continues to build a creative community around her, collaborating with producer Alex Bone while also working alongside Larry Klein and Vince Mendoza. It’s a fitting place for an artist whose songwriting traces a lineage that stretches from Vancouver Island to Laurel Canyon, while remaining unmistakably her own.

For an artist whose journey began by absorbing the world around her, the greatest excitement still lies in discovering what comes next.

EDITORIAL CREDITS: PHOTOGRAPHER: DEVON ROGERS // MAKE-UP & HAIR: NICKOL WALKEMEYER