Halley Elwell EPK
Long Bio
Halley Elwell is a singer-songwriter whose music "sparks nostalgia, but is also notable for her fantastic voice and well-crafted lyric" (Aimsel Ponti, Portland Press Herald). She has earned accolades from ASCAP, Nashville Songwriters Association, and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Most recently she has been awarded the 2024 Creators Fund grant from New Music USA for her newest project, Spontaneous Mutation.
A native of Hallowell, Maine, a small town with a thriving arts community, Elwell grew up with an artist mother who had all of her children drawing, painting, and singing from an early age. When Halley was 11 she was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a condition that causes tumors to grow on nerves, and found herself seeking out music and writing to work through the complexities of living with a condition with no cure. Because of the tumors, Elwell’s right ear canal is collapsed, causing what she calls an “in-ear monitor situation” when she sings. The result is a keen awareness of her sound and its vibration.
As a child she played bass clarinet and piano and was active in her school’s choral programs, though it was the songs that her aunts and mother sang that had the most influence on her. Irish ballads, the blues and jazz, musical theater, folk and protest songs all shaped her musical consciousness and opened her up to a wide world beyond the shores of Maine.
This eventually led her to UMASS Amherst, where she studied Jazz and African American music. While there, she met and worked with NEA Jazz Masters Sheila Jordan and Dr. Billy Taylor, both generous and renowned educators and musicians. When Elwell moved to San Francisco soon after graduation, it was Jordan who recommended that she study with jazz singer Kitty Margolis, who would become her mentor and later guide her through the release of her first album, Last Spring in 2011.
Many jazz gigs later, Elwell began to sneak her own songs into her set lists and caught the attention of a stranger in a dive-y lounge on the edge of the Tenderloin in San Francisco. The woman told her she needed to find Bonnie Hayes, a popular songwriting teacher who has penned songs for Bonnie Raitt. This is what Elwell considers the turning point in her music - where she went from a singer who wrote songs, to a songwriter who could sing them. Elwell has since gone on to win multiple awards and accolades, including an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award and being named by Nashville Songwriters Association as ‘One to Watch.’ In 2021 she released her first EP of original music in 10 years, The Last of What I Know, in collaboration with producer Dave Brophy (available on CD and on all streaming platforms).
In addition to performing, Halley is a voice and piano teacher and the program coordinator for the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice at Berklee College of Music. She is currently working on a full-length album and podcast entitled Spontaneous Mutation.
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Short Bio:
Halley Elwell is a songwriter whose music "sparks nostalgia, but is also notable for her fantastic voice and well-crafted lyric" (Aimsel Ponti, Portland Press Herald). At home on the stage and in the studio, Halley has earned accolades from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, ASCAP, and the Nashville Songwriters Association. Her 2021 EP release, The Last of What I Know, is available on CD and all streaming platforms.
Link to Last of What I Know all streaming platforms
Link to the single, Good Company on all streaming platforms
“Elwell’s music sparks nostalgia, but is also notable for her fantastic voice and well-crafted lyrics.”