Our Bios
Smallest length bio
Elm are a Leeds-based folk duo captivating their audiences with layers of rich cello harmonies and floating voices. They inspire meaningful connection in a rapidly changing world through their delicate songwriting and arranged material.
Medium length bio
Elm are a Leeds-based folk duo captivating their audiences with layers of rich cello harmonies and floating voices. They inspire meaningful connection in a rapidly changing world through their delicate songwriting and arranged material.
As classically-trained cellists with backgrounds in various disciplines of singing, they use their broad combined experiences to create the music that they love. Elm write original music and arrange traditional and contemporary songs for voices, two cellos, and other accompanying instruments. They are influenced by the likes of Karine Polwart, Leyla McCalla, and This Is The Kit. Elm's songs focus on their shared love for the natural world and seasonal change, and they enjoy experimenting with rhythm and harmonic interest.
Reviews
"Elm's music is like a warm embrace of homecoming. With vocal harmonies that are at once familiar and ear-bendingly strange, and lyrics as tender and perceptive as a bit of lichen curling around a branch, theirs is some of my favourite new music."
- Johanna Warren
"Elm's rich floating voices paired with beautiful cello melodies creates the warmest of atmospheres. Their music is grounded and often connected to nature, leaving a lasting sense of calm and freshness that you would find lying on a bed of moss in the forest."
- Erin Lee of the Youth Initiative Program's 17th year, organiser of the Forests In Motion event
"Elm were captivating at the Bridgnorth Music & Arts Festival 2025. Their music is beautiful and their vocal harmonies intertwined with the Cellos to create an absorbing and interesting sound which was very well received by our audiences. So much so, we have already invited them back to Bridgnorth for shows in 2026!"
- Bridgnorth Music and Arts Festival
"The folk duo Elm combine their voices and cellos to emerge a delicate, sonorous and delightful alchemy of earthy odes and soft soliloquies. I was memorably mesmerised when I saw them play at 'How the light gets in' in 2024 within a homage to trees project and the journey of wonder continues as I witness their rooting and flourishing within the Leeds folk scene."
- Rose
"You had us all enthralled."
- Anonymous, at Speakeasy event in Hereford 2025