Lady Sings – Nine Singers For Nine Stars

Born and raised in Wellington, Lauren Armstrong’s voice is influenced by the style and character of 1920s New Orleans. Having graduated from the New Zealand School of Music (BMus), she performs regularly in Wellington and around New Zealand with a number of different ensembles.

Nicole Maria Chesterman is a diverse and electrifying performer. She grew up in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the United States. She has a 30-year career of entertaining under her belt, in New Zealand, Los Angeles, and Europe. Among her many guises is vocalist with “The High Society Swingers.”

Nicole Maria’s artistic training has been born from the boards of venues across NZ and shortly and sweetly in-between child-rearing and gigging – mentors have been David Stroud, Wendy Parr, Jo Estill Voice at Sydney Conservatorium, Massachusetts, and Auckland

Ella Dunbar-Wilcox is a jazz singer and pianist from Wellington. For the past two years, she has been teaching jazz voice and piano at the New Zealand School of Music at Vic Uni and gigging around Wellington. She will be moving to Los Angeles in August to do a Master of Music in jazz performance at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.

Hannah Flacks is in her third year as a jazz performance major at the New Zealand School of Music studying jazz vocals. She has been heavily involved in musical theatre and choral music, starring as Belle in Beauty and the Beast in 2019 and Ronette in Little Shop of Horrors. In the past two years since joining the jazz programme her repertoire has grown. She has toured nationally with the band Corduroy, and NZSM Big Band 1 as the lead vocalist. Hannah has also performed at festivals including OktoberFest, Rhythm and Vines, TOAST Martinborough and the New Zealand Jazz Festival. She is looking forward to making her on-stage debut in professional musical theatre in the 2023 production of Kinky Boots.

Lisa Tomlins is a standout singer, not only because of her strong and beautiful voice but also the energy and enthusiasm she contributes throughout her performances make her a joy to watch.

With over 30 years’ experience in the music industry as a professional vocalist, she has travelled extensively throughout Australasia, Asia, UK, Europe and the US with the likes of Fly My Pretties, L.A.B, Trinity Roots, Hollie Smith, Shapeshifter, Fat Freddie’s Drop, Sola Rosa, and Rhombus.  She continues to tour regularly, her most memorable being Lord Echo in Japan and Neil Finn’s 2014 ‘Dizzy Heights’ World Tour. She is currently with The Pink Floyd Experience for the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ 50th Anniversary Tour.

From 7pm we’ll roll on into a stellar lineup for a “Lady Sings The Blues” set. Let’s welcome four blues icons to the stage please. Jess Deacon, Erna Ferry, Charlotte Kerrigan, and Julie Lamb will power through four half-hour sets backed by the brilliance of Matt Fitzpatrick, Elliot Fuimaono, Duncan Haynes, and Richard Te One.

Jess Deacon is a cross-genre vocalist and songwriter with an ear for music that speaks to the soul. She writes music that connects us as humans and challenges the expectations of the modern musician – offering up songs that hint at influences from folk, jazz, and classic rock, and following the ebb and flow of life as we know it.

The irrepressible wonder, Erna Ferry. Most recently much of Erna’s time has been taken up performing with Rodger Fox and his bands. It’s really cool to get to steal her away!
Press calls Erna vivacious and sparkling, true story… but she is also warm, engaging, and the ultimate professional. Erna makes it fun for band and audience alike. And that shows on the gig.

Charlotte Kerrigan is a singer- songwriter from Kāpiti. She has recorded 2 studio albums of original music, the first one entering number one on the NZ HeatSeeker charts. She teaches the Glee Club at Silver Shoe Performers and last year performed as one of the Divas in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at Southwards Theatre in Paraparaumu.

The Internet says that Julie Lamb is “band mum” to the Julie Lamb Outfit, and choir boss at The Shicka Chickas. She is an award-winning musician who has recorded more than 50 original songs. What the internet doesn’t tell you is that her happy place is singing to music lovers, with awesome talent at a brilliant venue that supports music. This gig is surely one of those!

Matariki is a time to come together as friends or family and connect over good food, drinks, and great entertainment – what better place to do this than the home of blues in Wellington!