“ChamberSoul” cellist brings sultry croon to the Quick Center for the Arts | Press Releases

Shana Tucker to play two shows with her quartet on March 27

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (March 13, 2015) – Shana Tucker, a singer-songwriter and cellist who credits her genre-bending ChamberSoul sound to a host of influences, will perform back-to-back shows at Fairfield University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on March 27. Tucker will bring her signature style to the intimate Wien Experimental Theatre at 7 and 9 p.m.

Tickets are $30. For tickets, contact the Box Office at www.quickcenter.com or (203) 254-4010.

Tucker’s distinctive sound incorporates elements of world music, ‘80s and ‘90s pop and folk, with steady nods to her classical and jazz roots. Growing up on Long Island, N.Y., she began taking piano lessons with her great-grandmother at home while discovering violin in fourth grade, later switching to cello in junior high school.

Tucker’s cello talents earned her a scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C. While there, she honed her songwriting skills in Hue, a singing piano trio, and received commissions for works performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Joyce Theater in New York and the Wits Theater in Johannesburg.

By 2009, Tucker established a network of musicians and began performing in her home base of North Carolina. She launched a crowd-funded campaign to finance her 2011 debut CD, “SHiNE” in 2011, which will be re-issued this year.

Shana's ChamberSoul style of music has been described as a mash-up of Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, India.Arie and Dianne Reeves, with an efficient complexity that is reminiscent of Bill Withers. “I’m intrinsically drawn to ‘real’ instruments with resonance, tone and depth that can sound without amplification,” she has said of her style. “Whenever and however possible, I always try to set a tone of acoustic intimacy with my colleagues on stage, and also with the audience, so that the music, performers and audience feel close and tangible, no matter the size of the venue."

Her sound caught the ear of Cirque du Soleil’s découvreur de talent who invited her to join the company as cellist and mezzo-soprano for “KÀ,” their unprecedented, gravity-defying production at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. She has also opened for Norah Jones, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Blind Boys of Alabama and Indigo Girls.