“No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.” -E.B. White
I'm a singer and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. I share my August 22 birthday with Dorothy Parker, and my first gigs were as a teenager in Wasilla, Alaska, where I sang Patsy Cline tunes in dive bars for tipsy but supportive patrons. Classical voice study helped build my musical foundation, but equally formative was the time I spent singing along with records by Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Joni Mitchell, and Tom Waits, to name just a few.
My new album, On the Trail with The Lonesome Pines, combines elements of jazz and Western swing with lyrics that evoke the spaciousness and romance of the American West. The record was The TImes’ Jazz Album of the Week, and Will Friedwald described it in The Wall Street Journal as “a sound suggestive of the vast expanses of the open plains, a huge empty canvas that paints an internal picture—a surreal, extraplanetary prairie of the mind….something new and wondrous.”
I’ve made three other albums as a leader or co-leader: The Great City (Anzic Records), The Late Set (Anzic Records), and a tribute to The Bird and the Bee (SmallsLIVE).
I was indeed willing to be lucky when I moved to New York in 2003, and New York has been generous to me ever since. My more eclectic gigs include performing for Ralph Lauren and Naeem Khan during New York Fashion Week; guesting with Jeff Goldblum on the opening night of his run at Café Carlyle; singing a track on a Moby record; and performing the national anthem at a Mets game (full disclosure: I'm a Yankees fan). In 2010, I sang duets with Frank Sinatra on Broadway in Twyla Tharp’s COME FLY AWAY and in 2017, I played a jazz singer in Errol Morris's critically acclaimed Netflix documentary-drama, WORMWOOD.
Together with Amy Cervini and Melissa Stylianou, I’m a founding member of Duchess, a close-harmony trio inspired by the Boswell Sisters. Duchess has released three critically acclaimed full-length albums and a holiday EP on Anzic Records and performed at jazz festivals and clubs throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Israel. We performed with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at Lincoln Center, singing the music of the Andrews Sisters for Taylor’s seminal piece, COMPANY B. Duchess won Vocal Group of the Year in the 2021 and 2022 Jazz Journalists Association awards and was named Best Vocal Group in the 2021 Jazz Times Critics’ Poll.
I’m also a staff singer in the professional chamber choir at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. When I'm not performing or rehearsing music, I can usually be found pottering in the kitchen or out and about in this city I love so much.
Photographer: Margherita Andreani
Stylist: Brianna Pesce