Elsa Steixner, born and raised in Vienna, spans an arc with her music that is able to combine the sound of the jazz and blues tradition with the most inmate facets of singer-songwring.
Together with Julian Bazzanella (keys) and Daniel Louis (drums), whom she met during her music studies at the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem (NL), and Jakob Lang (double bass), who studies at the MUK Vienna (AUT), she founded the band ELSA in 2021.
The quartet has since played several concerts in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria and won the Viersen Jazzband Challenge in 2022 with an original composion.
In June 2023, Elsa Steixner was nominated for the Heij Konijn Prize by the ArtEZ Academy of Music.
Influenced by the jazz and soul music of African American artists, as well as the acoustic pop of the 70s, ELSA's composions differ in genre and subject matter, yet meet in the essential points of sincerity and devotion. This embrace of tradition, combined with a curious and atentive look at the present, gives the music a timelessness without diminishing its topicality.
ELSA’s debut album “A Day On Solid Ground” was released in May 2023. As part of the Popronde, the Band will tour the Netherlands in fall 2023.
Elsa Steixner - vocals
Julian Bazzanella - piano
Jakob Lang - double bass
Daniel Louis - drums
"During her studies, Elsa Steixner has emerged to an adventurous and idiosyncratic storyteller who knows how to filter the knowledge and skills she has been offered very well. Elsa has no interest in showing off generic skills but instead focuses on her authentic storytelling, engaging her fellow creators and audience in the process.
Her language is very mature, and Elsa easily takes you by the hand live on stage and in her recorded music and video clips through a multitude of emotions, from sorrow to exuberant joy, spanning a spectrum from introspection to wandering curiosity".
– Michiel Braam (Head of Jazz & Pop Arnhem, Pianist & Composer)
"(…) the combination of refined and elegant songwring, a great band and a mesmerizing and accomplished singer who means every word she sings, touches my heart deeply every me. And looking around me…..I’m not the only one!"
- Izaline Calister (Singer-Songwriter, Edison winner)
"Listening to ELSA's music, you get the feeling as if you're taken by the hand by a long-lost friend, bringing you back to yourself. Her songs interweave personal stories, feelings and reflections in a way that resemble the work of Joni Mitchell in lyricism and in the spirited performance of Nina Simone. Take a good look around in the audience during an ELSA performance. It's not surprising to catch most people with closed eyes, smiling. It can be regarded as an achievement how Elsa and her tight-knit ensemble of musicians are able to transfer their soulful and authentic performance unto a wide audience, from one to a hundred years old."
- Jetse de Jong (Pianist & Composer)
