Biography

Elspeth's interest in African roots music began in childhood with an obsession for ragtime. She later became immersed in classical voice studies, earning a BA in Music from Wesleyan University. She was still primarily performing classical music when she had her first significant encounter with Cuban music. It was an epiphany. The rhythmic counterpoint and call-and-response singing were exciting and powerful, and in the ensuing weeks Elspeth put her classical voice training aside in order to focus on congas, Cuban dance, folkloric Cuban song, and Spanish language. “Concentrating most of my early efforts on drumming was a good decision,” Elspeth explains. “Nothing could have better informed my singing in this style.  Rebeca Mauleón said, regarding Cuban musicians, ‘we are all drummers’”.

Elspeth has been singing for and directing Orchestra Zarabanda (formerly Yerbabuena), a 12-piece Cuban charanga band, for the better part of a decade.  Zarabanda has been her primary training ground, providing hundreds of performances and two major recording projects, although she has sung for a variety of other ensembles along the way. Not surprisingly, Elspeth’s upcoming release features many members of Orchestra Zarabanda, as well as special guests Jovino Santos Neto, Marco de Carvalho and Anthony Blea, with whom Elspeth is honored to have had the opportunity to record.

Given her unique position in the Northwest as a Cuban-style singer with extensive classical training, Elspeth has in recent years become a go-to person for solo work in a variety of Spanish-language and folkloric Cuban choral projects. She particularly enjoyed performing the passionate and highly rhythmic alto solos in the epic work, Canto General (poetry by Pablo Neruda, composed by Mikis Theodorakis), in 2005 with the Seattle Peace Chorus.

Most recently Elspeth has been exploring the fusion of world music and jazz with her quintet, which allows her to draw on her rhythmic and improvisatory background while traversing a wide breadth of Latin American styles and vocal colors.

In 2007 Elspeth received an Earshot Jazz nomination for "Best Emerging Artist", and she was awarded a City Artist grant and smART Venture grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.