Elizabeth “Elz” Henderson

Being known for genre-bending and crowd-pleasing, Elz has mastered the art of reading the crowd and fitting the mood and setting of any party while always maintaining her musical integrity.  Growing up listening to breakbeats, techno, and house music along with discovering classic rock, jazz, hip-hop, and funk music, she learned how to incorporate all of these elements to create some serious flavor.  Her parents were both opera singers, so she was raised with a great appreciation and passion for music.  She studied piano and violin throughout her youth and into Highschool.  She got interested in electronic music by going to local underground raves in San Francisco; seeing her first female DJ inspired her to learn how to use turntables herself to express her love for music.  Her first DJ gig was in 1998 and she has been hitting the floor running ever since.  In March 2008 Elz graduated from Ex’pression College with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Sound Arts, and after graduation, she spent the summer interning for DJ Shadow.  She assisted in the preparation for the launch of DJ Shadow Digital (The DJ Shadow Digital Store) and processed sound samples for the Dj Shadow digital store.  She has releases on Muzimo Records, Harlum Muziq, Look Out Records, and has just joined the Tech House label Laser Native as their newest resident artist.  In 2015 she studied Ableton at Sequence One in Oakland and then went on to work as a Music Curator and Audio Engineer at the DJ app, Crossfader.  She has performed gigs at the SXM festival in St. Maartin, BPM festival in Mexico, Coachella, WMC in Miami, Member’s Only in New York, Los Angeles, Vegas, Seattle, Burning Man, and all over the Bay Area at clubs such as Audio, Great Northern, Monarch, 1015 Folsom, The End Up, DNA Lounge, Ruby Skye, Temple, and The Clift Hotel. She has DJ residencies with the Burning Man camp The Kazbah and a Bay Area monthly event called Common Ground.  She also teaches therapeutic beat-making workshops for elementary and middle school children using Ableton and the Push with the nonprofit Today’s Future Sound throughout the Bay Area.  Her mission is to use music as a tool to heal people by giving them a safe space to be themselves while injecting them with positivity via the best music to dance to.  Elz teaches Blue Bear’s adult DJ classes at Monarch and private lessons on Fridays at Fort Mason.