Wesla Whitfield, a remarkable singer, has a deep love for the rich collection of musical treasures known as The Great American Popular Songbook. Wesla has been learning and developing her talents for many years. According to her, she knew at age two-and a half that she would be a singer. Her unique sound would place her in the fascinating area that borders jazz and pop music. It draws its material largely on the great standards of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart. Wesla Whitfield was a Santa Maria, California native. She was the youngest of three daughters and received routine music training as a child. She took piano lessons at 7 years old, sang in church, and studied voice at 14 years. At age 7, she discovered her mother’s large sheet music collection and used it to sight-read. She was only 14 years old when Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney and the Hi-Los were among her influences. One of her first professional experiences was as a salaried chorusister with the San Francisco Opera in the mid-70s. Wesla, with her husband/pianist/arranger, Mike Greensill performs annually throughout the country and returned in 2007 for the 26th and final winter run in San Francisco’s York Hotel Empire Plush Room. Mike and Wesla have shared the stage at Michigan’s Meadowbrook and New Jersey’s Garden State Art Center. They also opened the Flint Center in Cupertino, where they hosted such luminaries as Frankie Laine, Michael Feinstein, and George Burns. Solo symphonic performances include two concerts with San Francisco Symphony, as well as San Jose and Sacramento, Stockton. Napa, Auburn. Concord Pavilion. Santa Rosa. Wesla has been on Garrison Keillor’s national program, “Prairie Home Companion”, twice, singing with Joe Wilder on ‘Weekend Edition’, ‘On Fresh Air’ with Terry Gross, and ‘All Things Considered’ with Robert Siegel. Wesla and Mike also appeared on the Marian McPartland PBS series ‘Piano Jazz’. The pair were featured on five occasions on Charles Grodin’s show. They also performed on the Regis u0026 Kathie Lee show and were featured in a feature on America’s favourite TV program, CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. Wesla and Michael made their Carnegie Hall debut in the Tribute to Frank Sinatra at Avery Fisher Hall, New York, during the JVC Jazz Festival. They have been featured in the 96 Ella Fitzgerald tributes, the 97 Nat Cole tributes and the ’98 Judy Garland tributes at Carnegie Hall. They were invited to the White House by Hillary Clinton in June 1996. Wesla’s one-woman, autobiographical show, which she presented at the Kaufman Theater, 42nd Street in New York, was greeted with huge critical acclaim. Their seventeenth album, which featured the Klinglehorn French Horn Quartet as well as Gary Foster from HighNote Records, was released in 2006. It received rave reviews from Jazz Times among many other national publications. Oprah Magazine’s October 2005 issue featured a three-page article that described Wesla as “a remarkable woman”. Their 19th album, ‘Message from the Man In The Moon’ was released in December 2007. Their most recent CD, “Best Thing For You-Live from the Rrazz Room”, was recorded during their annual San Francisco run in May 2011. It was released in November 2011. Whitfield and Greensill are invited performers in the repertory company as well as the ongoing salute American Popular Song at Lincoln Center. They perform frequently in New York, as well as other prominent venues such as Boston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Recently, Wesla played Martha Watson in the St. Louis MUNY production of ‘White Christmas. Whitfield and Greensill both teach privately and conduct master classes at Notre Dame De Namur, Belmont, and Napa Colleges in Napa Valley. Their vocal workshop series in the Bay Area provides invaluable instruction for vocalists all over the country in interpretive skills that are so integral to the Great American Popular Songbook. from http://www.weslawhitfield.com
