Elena Powell was
born in Santa Cruz, California, and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. Educated
at UC-Berkeley, Cambridge University, and UCLA, she earned a Master's
degree in Classics, with a focus on ancient drama as
ritual, studying at the UCLA film school and doing a short film for
her thesis. From a young age she studied classical violin for 12 years,
playing in youth orchestras and quartets, and turned to improvisational
music in college. Elena left her PhD program after marrying a fellow
musician to live in an artistic community in Northern California.
After healing herself of a traumatic experience through singing, she
began to explore the world of voice and songwriting. She has four releases
on Mugwort Manor Records: Fractal Hoedown (1999),
Left of the Moon (2000), the
Ballad of Anton Barbeau EP (2002) and Alta Nova
(2002). Elena has toured solo and with a band up and down the West
Coast and in
Europe since 1999. Since 2002 she has also acted in 3 short films (2002-2004)
and sang/acted the female lead in Marat/Sade
(2005). She is currently at work on a new recording to be released
in late 2005 or early 2006.
