Lauris Elms was born in Springvale, Melbourne, and studied art at Swinburne  from 1948. She began singing lessons with Madame Katherine Wielaert, and later joined Gertrude Johnson’s National Theatre Opera School in 1952 which was then based in the hall of St. Peter’s , Eastern Hill.  At this time she appeared in Swallow’s P & A Parade, which she won in 1952 and again in 1954. During these two years she sang the songs of Mrs. Sharpshott in the Village Glee Club on A.B.C. Radio.

Lauris left for Paris in 1954, where she trained with Dominique Modesti for two years, before making her Covent Garden debut in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. She was principal contralto at Covent Garden from 1957 to 1960, singing in Berlioz’ Les Troyens, Parsifal, Walkure, Handel’s Samson, and Dialogues of the Carmelites  in English, as well as singing the role of Mrs. Sedley in Peter Grimes in Britten’s Decca recording of this opera. She appeared in the Covent Garden 100th Anniversary  Concert and in the Leeds Centenary performance of Handel’s Samson, and toured Israel with Raphael Kubelik for the 10th Anniversary of Israel in 9 performances of Beethoven’s 9th.

Lauris married Graeme de Graaff and they returned to Australia . She presented lieder recitals for Musica Viva throughout Australia between 1960 and 1970. Lieder was a form she made her own, and she brought it to the Australian public as no other artist had done. She sang with the Sutherland-Williamson Opera Company in 1965, and then with the Elizabethan Theatre and the Australian Opera from 1966 to 1987.

Lauris has very publicly and at some professional cost been a tireless advocate for the primacy of the artist practitioner in art over bureaucracy and pomposity. Audiences rightly recognised that she would suffer no airs and graces in the service of the very highest artistic standards: it is and continues to be the achievement of excellence in musical technique and sensibility which is paramount. Her many recordings reflect this and the estimation of her peers is confirmation.
Her roles have included: Azucena (Il trovatore), Amneris (Aida), Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Mistress Quickly (Falstaff), Arsace (Semiramide), Bradamante (Alcina), Fricka (Das Rheingold), Julius Caesar, Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito), Dalila (Samson and Dalila), Mrs Sedley (Peter Grimes), Judith (Bluebeard's Castle).

Honours
Lauris Elms was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1974, awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 1977, and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
In 1988, the University of Sydney awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Music, and in 1995 she received the Rotary International Award for Vocational Excellence.
In 2010 she received Victoria's Green Room Award for Lifetime Achievement.