Biography
Raised by ministers of the Salvation Army, Shepherd had early exposure to choirs and brass bands. Trained extensively in conservatories, Shepherd completed a degree in jazz piano from McGill University. She initially entered the music program to pursue a career in music therapy, turning later to songwriting and performing. She returned to Toronto in 2004 and worked as a server at a piano bar. She became the restaurant’s key entertainer and formed a trio with Scott Kemp on bass and Colin Kingsmore on drums.
Shepherd has sold out legendary jazz clubs across the world, from Tokyo's Cotton Club to Detroit's Cliff Bell's. She has also appeared at festivals on both sides of the Atlantic, including Montreal Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival. In 2009, she was personally invited by British souljazz star Jamie Cullum to open for him at a sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl.
Shepherd has appeared and performed live on many radio shows, including The Gilles Peterson Show on BBC Radio 1 (UK), J-Wave's Modaista (Japan) and Q with Jian Ghomeshi on CBC Radio (Canada).
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth Shepherd (musician)
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)