“Sumptuous… unabashed joyousness... perfectly calibrated delicacy and warmth.” ~David Edward Hughes, JetSpaceMagazine.com Music brings me to some of the deepest places I know, whether singing or listening. There is a "coming home" that I experience through music. "A Night In June" was a love affair waiting to happen. I chose the songs that resonated the most with me - both lyrically and melodically. I had listened to all the "greats" growing up. Billie, Ella, Sarah, Mel Torme', etc., and as an adult I was thrilled to discover Andy Bey, Anita O'Day, Kurt Elling and so many more. They all seem to flow through me when I sing. "If I Were to See You Again", my bonus track, is a song I wrote for a memorial service honoring my theatre school chums that have now passed. We are a special tribe, and continue to be. When writing that song, I had images of snapshot memories that triggered the melody and lyrics. I still feel those moments every time I sing that song. It was a special time in my "growing up years" and I will never forget it. I am a vocalist and arranger who sings familiar and unfamiliar tunes from an unexpected angle. I strive to seamlessly bridge the gap between jazz and musical theatre, and my goal is to bring my audiences deeply into both the music and the lyric. I am a classically trained musical theatre artist, and I bring this training to my love for jazz, The Great American Songbook, and more. For me, music means deep connection to soul through the freedom of sound and attention to lyric. As I use a toolkit composed of "in the moment" phrasing, line and musical tension, I strive to dive beneath the technique and let the moment take me where it may. The amazing melodies and lyrics of The Great American Songbook, the 1920's - 1940's in particular, really speak to me the most. When I wander through a music book, I am no longer surprised when I fall in love with a song and then glance down to the bottom of the page and see it was written within that 20-year span. Singing songs that leave room for "sub-text" is fabulous. Lyrics that allow room for the singer to spread out with inner life, and melodies that can both whisper and soar in a single phrase. I have been privileged to perform on some pretty amazing stages here in the U.S., including Houston Grand Opera, Theatre Under the Stars in Houston, Fifth Ave. Theatre and Benaroya Hall in Seattle as well as many others. I have sung everything from classical to heavy blues, small cabaret venues to big splashy theatres. My favorite spot, however, is to be in a small room with people I can really connect with. Just before a recent performance, my husband said something pretty astonishing to me. He said, "I look forward to experiencing you tonight." That was it. I wasn't "performing," nor did I wish to. I just wanted to sing as if in my living room. Thank you Peter, for helping me to see that, and thank you, jazz and more, for helping me to sing it.