Cathy Elliott
Cathy Elliott (vocalist, composer, arranger, pianist) was raised in the Washington, DC area and has played piano, sung and composed from an early age. By 10, she was competing in piano competitions. At 11, she was invited to study with Helmut Braunlich, member of the composition faculty at The Catholic University Music School. In high school, she won a Mitsubishi scholarship to study voice privately with Susan Dash.
She has written music for the Richmond Symphony Orchestra as well as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Her arranging work has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” She has won a grant from the American Composers Forum to write a piece celebrating the renaissance and history of the U street area of Washington, DC. The work was performed with Ms. Elliott on vocals along with such notable musicians as bassist Steve Novacel, trombonist Calvin Jones and trumpeter Webster Young. Ms. Elliott has traveled to Africa where she was a vocalist for Dzimbo Dzavadzimu, a collaborative music and dance show. Performances were held in Zimbabwe and South Africa at the International Grahamstown Fine Arts Festival. She has composed music or been the MD for a number of theater productions and film shorts including the Signature Theater production of Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, performed at the Public Theater, Hamlet, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, The Tapestry by Alexis DeVeaux War Music; by Jonathan Logue, and Gospel at Colonus (Breuer and Telson).
As a vocalist, Ms. Elliott has approximately ten years of professional experience on the New York City jazz scene. Among other groups she has been a part of, she was the co-founder of the Tedd Baker/Cathy Elliott quintet, a straight-ahead jazz group performing around New York for about 4 years. She has spent three years as an artist-in-residence at the Instituto Musica Contemporanea at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. In 2008, she released a CD of her own works entitled The Turning Point available at www.cdbaby.com and www.digstation.com.
Active on the educational scene, Ms. Elliott was an orchestrator and vocalist for a national project produced by Silver Burdett Ginn. She was also a co- creator of a jazz curriculum for high schools entitled The Jazz Project funded by a grant from The Mockingbird Foundation. She is currently working on a book of vocal technique with her teacher, Susan Dash. Cathy Elliott is a graduate of The Oberlin College Conservatory(B.M.) and The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College(M.A.) where she studied composition and jazz arranging. Her teachers and mentors include Thea Musgrave, Michael Philip Mossman, Wendell Logan, Susan Dash, Jeff Nichols, and bassist Marcus Miller.
