Vocalist, composer and instrumentalist Esperanza Spalding fell in love with music as a little girl in Portland, Oregon. She first drew acclaim as a child violinist before discovering the upright bass as a teenager. Within months she was playing in local clubs, exploring pop, rock, hip-hop and especially jazz. By age 20 she was an instructor at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, and was performing with singer Patti Austin and a stellar roster of jazz greats. Her 2008 album...

The most successful and admired female songwriter in the history of pop music, Carole King proves that one woman alone at the piano can be more powerful than a four-piece rock band or a 30-piece orchestra. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where her mother was a teacher and her father a firefighter. She learned to play the piano at age four and formed her first band in high school. At age 18, she scored her first Number One hit record – the first of 118 pop hits on the Billboard charts,...

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both singer and actress. With a record-tying five Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and a long list of other accolades to her name, she is among today's most highly regarded performers. Blessed with a luminous soprano voice and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling, she is equally at home on Broadway and opera stages as in roles on film and television. In addition to her theatrical work, she maintains a...

Colbie Caillat was barely out of her teens when she established herself as one of America's premier singers and songwriters. She released her first album, Coco, in 2007, just weeks before her 22nd birthday. The album debuted at Number 5 on the Billboard magazine charts, driven by the hit single 'Bubbly,' and quickly sold over two million units. Billboard named her the 'Breakthrough Artist of the Year.' Her second album, fittingly titled Breakthrough, debuted at Number 1 and confirmed her...

In a breathtakingly short time, songwriter Christina Perri has earned a reputation for combining infectious, memorable melodies with uncompromising descriptions of difficult emotions. Arriving in Los Angeles on her 21st birthday with one suitcase and a guitar, she struggled to find an audience, then shot to stardom in the summer of 2010, when her song 'Jar of Hearts' was played on an episode of the television show, 'So You Think You Can Dance.' Overnight, the song hit the Top 10 on iTunes and...

Aretha Franklin is known the world over as the Queen of Soul Music. In the 1960s, her hit recording "Respect" became an anthem of the civil rights struggle and a theme song for the dawning women's movement. He musical career began in the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin was the pastor. Young Aretha sang and played piano, and the passion of Gospel music has remained with her through her subsequent triumphs in secular blues, rock and...

One of the most distinguished musical artists of our time, the singer Jessye Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia. As a ten-year-old child, she was spellbound by a recording of the great contralto Marian Anderson. Inspired by Anderson's recordings and autobiography, she resolved to become a classical singer herself. At age 16, she won a full scholarship to study voice at Howard University. After graduate music studies at Peabody Conservatory, she went to Europe, where she was soon discovered...

Kiri Te Kanawa created a sensation in 1971, when she made her debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Audiences were captivated by the lyric splendor of her voice and the exquisite tenderness of her interpretation. Soon she was a leading star of the operatic stage. Today, she is one of the most famous sopranos in the world. Born in New Zealand of Maori and European ancestry, she enjoyed a career as a popular singer and recording...

Singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester burst onto the music scene in the 1970s with the albums Home to Myself, Bright Eyes and Melissa, with its hit single Midnight Blue. Manchester's success as a writer and recording artist was preceded by thorough preparation. She published her first poems at 15, studied acting at New York's High School of the Performing Arts and songwriting at New York University, in a class taught by Paul Simon. She honed her craft playing piano and signing in the...

Since she first hit the charts with "Don't Make Me Over" in 1962, the unmistakable voice and flawless musicianship of Dionne Warwick have made her an international musical legend. Her soulful blend of pop, gospel and soul styles has transcended musical and cultural boundaries. She began singing in church in her home town of East Orange, New Jersey. While attending Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, she began working as a back-up singer on recording sessions in New York City....

Amy Grant made her recording debut while still in her teens and soon released the first record of contemporary Christian music to sell over a million copies. She later achieved unprecedented crossover success with her albums "Lead Me On" and "Heart in Motion." With six Grammy awards and over 30 million records sold worldwide, she is the best-selling Christian music artist of all time. Grant is married to fellow musician and Academy member Vince Gill.

Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album -- recorded when she was still in high school -- sold more than three million copies. A prodigiously talented singer and songwriter, she wrote every song on the album, including the year’s number one country single, "Our Song." Her dedication to music began in childhood. By age ten she was performing at karaoke contests, festivals and county fairs around her hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. At age 12, she persuaded her parents to move to Nashville...

Naomi Judd won renown as half of the mother-daughter singing team, The Judds, the most popular female singing duo in country music history. But her rise in the world was not an easy one. Before graduating from high school, the unmarried Naomi was already pregnant with the first of her two daughters. When her first marriage ended in divorce, she found herself struggling to support two daughters on her own. A decade of struggle followed, but Naomi and her daughter Wynonna developed their...

In her greatest roles, Sally Field has personified the strong-willed, independent woman of the American heartland, earning Oscars for her performances as a courageous union organizer in Norma Rae and as a Depression-era widow struggling to keep the family farm in Places in the Heart. Although she has earned lasting fame as a serious actress, she first won the hearts of the American public in the 1960s as the teenage star of situation comedies. At the time, many dismissed her as a cute kid...

Today, television audiences are used to seeing Hilary Swank resplendently gowned, gliding over a red carpet at glittering Hollywood soirees, but her early years were anything but glamorous. She spent much of her childhood living in a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington. Hilary Swank began acting professionally in her teens, appearing in television shows such as Growing Pains. Movie audiences got their first look at Hilary Swank in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Next...