Emily Elbert

Emily Elbert
Emily Elbert in New York City (Adam Jason Photography)
Background information
Birth name	Emily Caroline Elbert
Born	(1988-12-21) December 21, 1988
Genres	Folk, soul, jazz, pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Self-released
Associated acts	Leon Russell, G. Love & Special Sauce, Crystal Bowersox, Liz Longley, Livingston Taylor, The Boston Boys,
Website	www.emilyelbert.com

Emily Caroline Elbert (born December 21, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. She has independently released three albums: Bright Side (2006),^[1] Proof (2010),^[2][3] and Alive, In Love (2011), and one E.P., "Evolve" (2013).

Biography

The daughter of a teacher and a pianist, Elbert was raised in Dallas and the Dallas suburb of Coppell, Texas. Emily spent her childhood listening to musicians such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, and 60's radio, which had a significant impact on her musical development.^[4]

A third-generation professional musician, Elbert began studying piano at an early age. As a teenager, inspired by Jimi Hendrix, she began playing guitar and singing.^[5] She attended the Berklee College of Music Five-Week Performance Program, which she paid for with live performances at local venues and sales of her first album, Bright Side.^[6]

Proof, Elbert's second studio album, was released in September 2010 and is co-produced by Elbert and Berklee professor Stephen Webber. Accompanying Elbert on the album is an international cast of musicians from India, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and the U.S., including Berklee professor and Grammy-winning cellist Eugene Friesen, and Elbert's father Roland on piano.^[7] According to Elbert, "the concept of Proof is based on a song on the CD where the chorus is "proof that there's love/proof that there's peace/proof we can be redeemed". That's a theme woven throughout the record — finding love and peace in the natural world, in relationships, in the mind, and even in life's really tough situations."^[8]

Elbert's third album, Alive, In Love was a live CD and DVD created in a two-day period in Brighton, Massachusetts. The album was recorded, arranged, performed, produced, and filmed by Berklee students, and was funded entirely by fans on the crowd-sourcing platform Kickstarter. Alive, In Love was recorded in 2011 and released in the spring of 2012.

In 2011, Elbert graduated with an Artists' Diploma from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts on a full-tuition scholarship.^[9]

Events and Touring

Elbert has toured across the US and internationally,^[10] and has opened for G. Love & Special Sauce, Victor Wooten, Leon Russell, Kaki King, Crystal Bowersox, The Wood Brothers, Tuck & Patti, Richie Havens, Robben Ford, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Joan Osborne, Patty Larkin, Kate Voegele, Marcia Ball and Ben Taylor.^[11] She was a featured performer at the International Folk Music Festival, the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival, the Boston Folk Festival, CMJ, Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, the Chiang Mai Festival, and many more. Elbert has also appeared live on radio stations across the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia, and was the musical guest on numerous episodes of “Good Morning Texas.”^[12] She also performed on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus in 2011,^[13] and has taught workshops to students in the United States and Asia.

On her 18th birthday, Texas Instruments licensed videos of two of Elbert's songs to demonstrate their new video cell phones throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.^[14]

As of early 2013, Elbert has performed in 15 countries worldwide, including performances in North, South, and Central America, Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, and the Middle East.

Awards

Glamour Magazine named Elbert one of their Top 10 College Women of 2010. In 2009, she won the Burnsong Contest in Scotland and was part of the Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Showcase. She was a 2008 New Folk Finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival and a Boston Folk Festival Songwriting Finalist, and named Best New Artist of the Year by WUMB Radio in Boston. Elbert was selected as one of four female vocalists in the 2007 Gibson-Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensemble which performed at the Grammys in Los Angeles^[15] and took first place in the 2007 Texas Music Project’s "Texas 10 Under 20" Contest.^[16] Elbert won Berklee’s 2006 Summer Performing Songwriter Contest at Berklee College of Music, and was named 2006 Rookie of the Year by the Dallas Morning News. In 2012, she was named The Timberland Company's Eco-Friendly Artist of the Month, and was also awarded the grand prize in Dallas' annual B.W. Stevenson Songwriting Competition. In 2013, the Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival and Workshop in Bigfork, Montana awarded her their Chairman's Young Artist Scholarship.

Discography

• Bright Side (2006)
• Proof (2010)
• Alive, In Love (2011)
• Evolve (2013)

References

External links

• Official Website