The real ‘Crowl-pleaser’

I like to think of myself as a Renaissance Woman, since I do so many different musical things. However, when you have an eclectic musical life, your bio becomes quite a challenge! So - here’s my best attempt at being “informative, yet entertaining” and not “stuffy”, to help you get to know me better. Thanks for visiting my new & improved website, and if you read this, I won’t have to send you a Christmas letter!

Where to start – I am very lucky to do what I do!  Recent highlights this year have been becoming the first female conductor of the hit musical “Wicked” in North America, playing for and with Dame Julie Andrews, being the featured voice on the film “David and Fatima”, singing on John Williams’ score to “Indiana Jones 4”, conducting for Christopher Young’s score for the upcoming film “The Uninvited”, creating and producing the hit live events I’ve titled “Songs, Shorts & Scores,” (and having such distinguished guests as composers Mark Isham, Rolfe Kent, and Alf Clausen!), composing the score to the film “Haddonfield,” hearing my songs in the movies “Nancy Drew” and “My Big Fat Independent Movie,” and seeing the internet site I created ProSingersAccess.com, take off after five years and become the “go-to” site for composers and producers to find session singers.

And before this last year what did I do? Well, a couple “WOW” moments of the past few years includes singing on the Grammys with Gnarls Barkley, singing on Neil Young’s “Living With War” album, playing at the Hollywood Bowl and the Sydney Opera House, performing with Barbra Streisand, having a Top 20 hit on the AC charts with my song “Beautiful,” and winning the LA Weekly Award for Music Direction.

And growing up? Well, I come from a small, and I mean SMALL-town, in Western Maryland, where I was blessed with parents that found me a piano teacher as soon as I started banging on my toy xylophone. Depending on the parent you ask, I was either 3 or 4. I accompanied all my school choral concerts and musicals, starting from the time I was in middle school, and got to sing solos only on special occasions – when I “refused” to play and made the choir teacher do their job (just kidding!).

My training was classical, and I did the whole piano-competition thing, and even won a few… the most memorable was winning the MD State Piano Concerto competition as its youngest competitor when I was 12. About that time I started playing keyboards (yes, my first “keyboard” was a Sequential Circuits prophet 600), for a local music group my dad directed, and learned a lot about programming, arranging, and playing different styles.

I got more into singing/songwriting in high school, playing with some friends in garage bands, and then more in college. University of Miami was an absolutely outstanding experience – from my teachers to my peers. I loved it. So much I did 2 degrees there – my bachelor’s in Piano Performance and my masters in Media Writing and Production. As an undergrad I found the music engineers who needed to record original material for their classes, and I’d write songs and get them recorded in the dead of night (that’s the only time the students had access to the recording studio!). So many amazing musicians there – so many I’ve run into in LA, that are doing what they love.

I moved to LA as soon as I had my masters degree in my hand. I couldn’t wait! I think I’ve always been a “California Girl” at heart. I jumped in as soon as I got here – primarily teaching, then assisting at a studio, then being a Music Supervisor, then going back to school for my doctorate, then releasing my album, then landing some pretty great composing and performing gigs – and…the rest, as they say, is “history”!

Ren • ais • sance Man:

A polymath (Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής, "having learned much")[1] is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymath (or polymathic person) may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable. Most ancient scientists were polymaths by today’s standards.[2]

The terms Renaissance Man and (less commonly) Homo Universalis (Latin for "universal man" or "man of the world") are related and used to describe a person who is well educated or who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields.[3] This idea developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72): that “a man can do all things if he will.” It embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance Humanism which considered man empowered, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. Thus the gifted men of the Renaissance sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments and in the arts.

So, all that, but I’m a girl! (Hence, a "Renaissance WOM-AN") And hopefully you learned something other than “all about Christy Crowl,” which, I know is your primary goal here… but I always like to give something back.