Who am I?
Good question. I bet you're just dying to find out.
Here are some things you should know about me: I am an independent artist currently located in Nashville after moving from the Chicago and Champaign-Urbana areas. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May of 2022 with a Bachelor's of Musical Arts degree in Lyric Theatre. I am also a singer-songwriter, voice teacher, and professionally dramatic... as you can probably tell from the picture of me staring at you from behind this text.
Here are some things you might not neeeed to know but I guess would be kinda fun to know. It's very rare that I'm seen in the wild without a diet coke. My favorite TV shows are New Girl, F.R.I.E.N.D.S., and Avatar The Last Airbender (Yes, the children's show. No, it's not anime, not that there's anything wrong with anime. I will die on this hill). I'm a Lord of the Rings geek and a Gryffindor. I'm a diehard Foo Fighters fan and a Swiftie TO MY VERY CORE. I think everyone should be a camp counselor at least once, it'll humble you right quick, trust me. And last but not least, I am 5'1" and am aware that 5'1" is short thanks very much.
That's the short version. Keep reading if you 're intrigued, I guess?
The Rest of it
For those that reeeaaally want to know...
In third grade, my mom found the perfect piano teacher for my sister and I and we started piano lessons. That was the official beginning of it all. Pretty quickly, my piano teacher told my mom she needed to get me in voice lessons asap so she did! In sixth grade, I started performing in Musical Theatre productions with an organization known as Spotlight Youth Theatre back then. Then it was every school production I could get my hands on and the Musical Theatre thing snowballed from there.
Pretty soon after starting voice lessons, I started learning how to play guitar and then around 2012, I started playing in rock bands with Rock Academy Downers Grove. After a few different bands, I eventually became lead singer and rhythm guitarist of Jo's Corner in 2016. In August 2018, we released our debut record, CATALYST, which featured eight of our original songs and was produced mostly by us, with help from Ryan Groff, who gets his own paragraph in a second. In 2019, I released my debut single as a solo artist, "You Don't Get To Decide", which was followed in 2020 by my Debut EP, "About Time".
I have worked closely with Ryan Groff since 2016, and I feel very grateful to call him both friend and mentor. Ryan has played in bands such as Elsinore and Modern Drugs, and is the owner of Perennial Sound Studio. He has produced all of my released music, including singles "Live Wire" (2022), "Benjamin" (2021), "You Don't Get To Decide" (2019), and EP "About Time" (2020).
During my time in the Lyric Theatre program at the University of Illinois, I was lucky to study voice under Professors Dawn Harris and Sarah Wigley, with guidance from Dr. Julie Gunn and Professors Nathan Gunn and Michael Tilley. I also got the chance to perform in many Lyric Theatre productions including Fun Home (2021), Songs For A New World (2019), and The Marvelous Wonderettes (2022).
Recently, I had the incredible opportunity and privilege to work with Nashville musicians Candi Carpenter and Alden Witt on artist development and new music, which ended up totally changing the trajectory of my life. As a result of my time with these amazing people, I up and moved to Nashville myself. I am also very very excited to continue releasing new music, much of which I wrote with my writing partner and dear friend, Madysen Simanonis.