Michelle Pliner

Michelle knows how to attract a crowd of eager listeners. At the tender age of eighteen she caught the attention of Susan Muscarella, the Executive Director of the Jazz School in Berkeley, California. Susan offered her a scholarship to attend classes and booked her first show at the school's intimate venue in 2007. Michelle's talent and determination garnered a full house of enthusiastic ears and eyes awaiting her tribute to "Ella, Janis, and Etta". In 2008, Michelle was selected out of thousands of competitors by the National Foundation for The Advancement of the Arts to be in the company of Master Educator Bruce Kolb who has worked with Bette Midler and Liza Minelli. NFAA sponsored her trip to Florida and New York City, allowing her to perform, compete, and collaborate with extremely talented singers and musicians. Soon after this event, Michelle was taken under the wing of Johnny Nitro, a local blues legend of the Bay Area. Through Johnny, she joined Blue Horizon, a collective of young soulful musicians whose sole intent was to keep the thumping, crashing, soul stirring blues alive and well. Johnny taught her to really feel the words and rhythms that accompanied her voice. This advice helped strengthen the ability to deliver the sentiment of a song. Blue Horizon played everywhere from Biscuits and Blues to the Great American Musical Hall.
Opportunities to perform in diverse settings continued to presented itself, developing Michelle's abilities as a well-rounded singer. Some of the highlights of 2010, included joining a Burlesque Band--imagine the dancers shaking their tassels ( Ooh-La La !!!) to the hits of Stevie Wonder ....odd combo, but never dull !!. Around the same time, she landed a job as a musical theatre swing in a comedy revue "Shopping the Musical" downtown San Francisco at the Shelton Theatre. There, she fine-tuned the art of story-telling through music.

Recently, the twenty-two year old has moved to Brooklyn and sticks by her love of soul music, songwriting and performing at different venues throughout the city. Inspired lyrically, musically, and spiritually by Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Emily King, Lucy Woodward, and Bonnie Raitt.