Eleri Ward

Eleri Ward
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Birth name	Eleri Ward
Also known as	SUF/SOND (early)
Born	(1994-08-10) August 10, 1994 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Origin	New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Indie folk musical theatre pop
Years active	2016–present
Labels	Ghostlight (Sh-K-Boom)
Website	eleriward.com

Eleri Ward (born August 10, 1994) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress, best known for her Sufjan Stevens-inspired indie folk renditions of the works of composer Stephen Sondheim. Since garnering attention with covers posted to Instagram and TikTok, Ward has released two albums in this vein, A Perfect Little Death (2021) and Keep a Tender Distance (2022), both on Sh-K-Boom Records' Ghostlight imprint, as well as two self-released pop EPs, Prism (2020) and Friction (2021). In summer 2022, she toured with singer Josh Groban. As a stage actress, she has performed in productions for The Muny and MCC Theater.

Early life

Ward grew up in the Burr Ridge suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Displaying an early interest in performing, Ward began violin and piano lessons at age 5, in addition to dabbling in viola and alto saxophone, and began singing lessons at age 8. She was also involved in a children's theater school, where she made her stage debut in a production of The Sound of Music. Ward attended high school at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, where her department heads, Andy Robinson and Pat Musk, first introduced her to the work of Stephen Sondheim when she was 14.

Ward studied songwriting at the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year, before transferring to the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she graduated with a BFA in musical theatre with an emphasis on songwriting. During her second year at Boston Conservatory in 2015, Ward, feeling she had "hit a plateau" with the piano, taught herself to play guitar after buying one from a friend. After graduating, she moved to New York City, where she worked day jobs while auditioning for theater roles.

Career

Theatre

Ward was an ensemble performer in The Muny's 2016 production of The Wizard of Oz, directed by John Tartaglia. In August 2022, she made her off-Broadway debut as an understudy in MCC Theater's production of Only Gold, a musical with songs by Kate Nash and a book by Andy Blankenbuehler, which starred Nash, Terrence Mann, Karine Plantadit, and Ryan Steele. Ward again collaborated with the MCC Theater in March 2023 for their annual showcase Miscast23, which was livestreamed from the Hammerstein Ballroom. The concert, which honored Vanessa Williams and Lianny Toval, saw Ward perform alongside Jordan Cooper, Jordan Donica, Jose Llana, Dylan Mulvaney, Rachel Zegler, Annaleigh Ashford, Josh Groban, LaChanze, Bonnie Milligan, and Ben Platt.

Music

Ward's music career began in March 2019 with an acoustic cover of Sondheim's "Every Day a Little Death" from A Little Night Music, which she posted to Instagram with the caption "Sufjan on Sondheim". Encouraged by the cover's positive reception and urged on by a friend, she began posting a series of such covers, beginning with "Johanna (Reprise)" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street first posted the following day.

• • Show in East Village (probably Rockwood), first solo show
  • Perfect Little Death produced in closet of apartment during lockdown and recorded in a month
  • First time arranging music and first time playing acoustic

• • Initially went by SUF/SOND, but switched to her own name under advisement from Sondheim's legal representation.
  • Released two pop EPs, Prism in May 2020 and Friction in June 2021
  • Recorded A Perfect Little Death in Boston during lockdown over the course of a month
  • Album was picked up by Ghostlight
  • two album release shows at Rockwood Music Hall

• • "Sunday", track from A Perfect Little Death, exclusive preview by Playbill
• • Went by SUF/SOND for a time
• • At Joe's Pub show, performed "Loving You" from Sondheim's Passion with Donna Murphy, who had performed the song as the play's original Fosca.
  • Josh Groban saw Ward at first Rockwood show, invited her to tour with him
  • second album was produced by Allen Tate with string arrangements by Ellis Ludwig-Leone, both of San Fermin
• • joined Groban's "Harmony Tour", alongside Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Lucia Micarelli
  • show at Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion
• • second album released digitally Sep 16, 2022

• • Launched Tender Distance national tour in December 2022 at Sony Hall, and going into 2023, with surprise musical guests
• • Sony Hall show featured Laura Benanti, Bobby Conte, Julia Murney, and Samantha Pauly
• • More on Sony Hall show and guests
• • launched second album's "The Tender Tour" with Feb 2023 show at City Winery
  • tour had stops in Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Philadelphia
  • album had CD release on Feb 24, 2023
  • has amassed a "cult viral following"
  • received approval from Sondheim before his passing

Artistry

• • "fused emo Sondheim register with a familiar coffeehouse folk sound"
  • "In an interview, Murphy raved about Ward’s “unicorn of a voice,” adding that she especially admired that “there is nothing about Eleri that is struggling for a quality; it just all feels so fluid.”"
  • Groban praises the "wonderful line" of her voice, says she "[finds] ways to smooth the songs out and bring even more heart into the performance.”
  • About "Marry Me a Little": "Ward’s voice, alternating between what Murphy called the “whistle tones” of falsetto and a Fosca-like lower register, conveys crushing need more than sunny optimism."
• • Comparisons to Joan Baez and Joan Shelley
  • Fingerstyle folk
  • Specifically inspired by |Carrie & Lowell-era Sufjan
  • "It took me a long time to start finger-picking; I was so scared to try it. My journey with the finger-picking is all just experimenting with it, finding certain patterns that feel comfortable in my hands. It wasn’t until I made the album that I actually started layering the picking patterns, and that’s where I got a lot of my inspiration from Sufjan."
  • Barre chords
  • Interview notes that Sondheim's arrangements emphasize accompaniment figures and harmonies over melody, whereas Ward emphasizes the melodies more
  • Mostly avoids Sondheim's moments of harsh dissonance except on "Pretty Women", which ends with pinging discord: "When I first made the recording, I played it for my boyfriend and he was like, “The ending sounds weird.” And I was like, “Good.”"
• • "Two artists that couldn't be more different, and yet they share a poeticism that surrounds the sweet juxtaposition of beauty and darkness. They both dive right into the heart of what others might find somber and illuminate it with a sense of elegance and charm that makes that darkness palatable and enchanting. I think putting Sondheim's body of work in Sufjan-like clothes highlights that dynamic in an even more raw and vulnerable way that I believe is at the root of Sondheim's voice."
• (Review of second album by Ricky Pope for BroadwayWorld)
  • "Hers is a supple, rangy voice that is deeply rooted in emotion and story."
  • album has more instruments and backing vocals
  • "Her technique has grown sharper, both as a vocalist and an instrumentalist, and her emotional range is deeper and more on target."
  • "She takes the essential ingredients of Sondheim's songs, mixes in new and thoughtful harmonic structures, and a dash of her own creative magic to reassemble something that is greater than the sum of its parts. She is quite faithful to Sondheim's melodic lines, breathing new life into these standards through harmonies and new tempos. Her fondness for keys that are more modal than either major or minor is a perfect match for the frequent ambivalence of some of Sondheim's more brittle lyrics."
  • "Another Hundred People" features electronic elements
  • "The Miller's Son" features waltz, bossa nova, and fandango sections
• (second album track-by-track for Playbill)

• • Ward's version of "In Buddy's Eyes" was inspire by Barbara Cook's rendition
  • "Prior to her new album A Perfect Little Death (Ghostlight Records), Ward mostly worked in some collaborative union. The album was an open door to explore her more folk-driven, songwriter half, one she didn’t know was initially there while visiting the musical stories of Stephen Sondheim through the soundscape of Sufjan Stevens."
  • “I was just inspired by this whole idea of taking fun time songs and making them into this moody folk thing,” says Ward, who continued to sporadically capture various songs within the Sondheim catalog. “Sometimes it took a couple of days in between arrangements and other times it took months and months. It was never anything that was a priority. It was very much for my own enjoyment, a creative exercise of sorts.”
  • “There’s something about the conflict and the humanity and the darkness within his work that really speaks to me because it’s raw, and it’s real if art imitates life, then why would it be any other way?”
  • I don’t want to listen to a song and all is bright unless I’m listening to some jazz standards while I’m drinking a glass of red wine,” laughs Ward. “To really feed my soul, I want to listen to something that has drama, that has conflict and darkness to it. That’s more intriguing to me.”
• • favorite artist is Caroline Polachek; "I want to write a musical, but I want to bring the sensibility of lyricism and poeticism and grand stretching melodies that I feel in her work to it."

Personal life

Ward has a partner, Jamie Wayne, that she met in 2017.

Discography

Albums

• A Perfect Little Death (2021; Sh-K-Boom)
• Keep a Tender Distance (2022; Sh-K-Boom)

EPs

• Prism (2020)
• Friction (2021)

Singles

Year	Title	Album	Source	Label
2020	"The Girl in the Backseat"	Prism	Original
	"Mind Reader"
	"Losing Me"	non-album single
	"Do Yourself a Favor"
2021	"Johanna (Reprise)"	A Perfect Little Death	Sweeney Todd
	"Mess"	Friction	Original
2022	"Perfect"	non-album single
	"Another Hundred People"	Keep a Tender Distance	Company
	"No One Is Alone"		Into the Woods
	"Not While I'm Around"		Sweeney Todd

Music videos

Year	Song	Director
2020	"Mind Reader	Eleri Ward
	"Take Me To Your Garden"
2021	"Mess"	Gabrielle Carrubba
	"Johanna (Reprise)"	Katie O'Halloran
	"More"
2022	"Not While I'm Around"	Bailie de Lacy
	"Move On"	Eleri Ward

(Source notes)

• • Instagram debut in 2019
  • moved from New York to Boston with boyfriend during the pandemic
  • began posting her Sondheim covers to TikTok in January 2021 at the suggestion of a friend
  • made a TikTok asking BroadwayWorld to write about her album, which led to an interview with the website, which caught the attention of Kurt Deutsch of Sh-K-Boom Records
  • recorded first album in the closet of her Boston apartment, released by Ghostlight on Oct 1, 2021
  • second album was recorded at Better Company in Brooklyn. released in September 2022
  • performed duets with Company's Bobby Conte and Jennifer Simard at Sony Hall in December 2022
  • mom was an interior designer and real estate broker, father was a consultant
  • started piano lessons at age 5
  • at a young age, saw Sweeney Todd at the Drury Lane Theatre and attended a Sondheim talk with critic Frank Rich
  • sang as Amy in Company while in high school at Chicago Academy of the Arts
  • graduated from Boston Conservatory in 2017 with BFA in musical theater with an emphasis in acting and songwriting
  • picked up guitar in 2016 after buying one off of a friend
  • Ghostlight helped arrange Rockwood concert shortly after first album's release
  • Groban attended Rockwood show after being given her album by Warner Music Group's Kevin Gore; invited her to join his tour
  • Sondheim's death in November 2021 brought wider attention to Ward's covers
  • performed at Joe's Pub in March 2022, sang "Loving You" from Passion with Donna Murphy
  • Sondheim reportedly praised her album before his passing
• Search | Playbill
• has performed at the venue 54 Below on several occasions, including for Ryan Scott Oliver's "RSO: Monday the 13th" alongside Kathryn Allison, Jackie Cox, Jay Armstrong Johnson, and Bonnie Milligan
• attended launch party for When The Lights Are Bright Again, a book about the impact of the pandemic on the theater industry
• performed at the 10th annual "Night of a Thousand Judys", a Judy Garland tribute concert hosted at Joe's Pub, benefitting the Ali Forney Center and also featuring Frances Ruffelle, Nathan Lee Graham, Kathryn Gallagher, Bonnie Milligan, and Hilary Kole. (May 2022)

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