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NYSC SUCCESS STORIES

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa Carlton is an American singer-songwriter. Upon completion of her education at the School of American Ballet, Carlton chose to pursue singing instead, performing inNew York City bars and clubs while attending university. Three months after recording a demo with producer Peter Zizzo, she signed with A&M Records. She began recording her album, which was initially unsuccessful until Ron Fair took over.

Her debut single, "A Thousand Miles", reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2002. Her debut album, Be Not Nobody, followed and received a platinum certification in the United States. Her subsequent albums, Harmonium (2004) and Heroes & Thieves (2007), failed to match the commercial success of the first. She produced a fourth album, Rabbits on the Run (2011), independently before seeking a record label to release it. Carlton released a holiday EP titled Hear the Bells in November 2012, and released her fifth studio album, Liberman, on October 23, 2015.

Jesse Harris

Jesse Harris performed at the Songwriters CIrcle in 1996, through present day, he was a vocal student of Tina Shafer's for three years and went on to win a Grammy for his song "Don't know Why" on Norah Jones Album "Come Away." Follow Jesse @Jesseharrisnyc

Ian Axel

Ian Axel performed at the Songwriters Circle 2006, 2007, 2008 and was our contest finalist for two years straight. He went on to write the hit duet "Say Something" which Christina Aguilera performed with him in 2014 on her hit show "The Voice.” Ian is in the group "Great Big World" with his writing partner Chad King.

Rob Mathes

Rob Mathes has been performing with the New York Songwriters Circle since it's inception. He always does our famous Holiday show. Mathes has also done arranging and composition work for artists as diverse as, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Fall Out Boy, Train (band), Jillette Johnson, Gin Wigmore, Lou Reed, Bono, Sting, Sade, Lenny Kravitz and Jay-Z, Yo Yo Ma, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Luciano Pavarotti, Boston Pops Orchestra, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Hot Hot Heat, Avril Lavigne, Butch Walker, Renée Fleming, Vanessa Carlton, Bowling for Soup, Evangeline Vournazos, Tim McGraw, Yolanda Adams, George Michael,Celine Dion, Panic! at the Disco, Ghostface Killah, Peter Cincotti, Renee Olstead, Lyle Lovett, Ronan Tynan, David Sanborn Michael McDonald, The Cab, and The Young Veins.

Kevin Garrett

Kevin Garrett performed at the Songwriters Circle 2011, 2012, 2013. The Sam Cooke-influenced singer can humblebrag that he's landed producer and songwriter credits for the opener on Beyonce's recently released visual album Lemonade titled "Pray You Catch Me."

John Schmitt

John Schmitt started performing at the Circle 2007 to present day. He was a finalist in the Circle's yearly contest for two years. His song "Ophelia" blew up on Spotify in 2015 with over 1.5 million plays. John currently is a teacher in Brooklyn and still performs with his band "The Broken Crowns" to sell out crowds.

Lana de la Rey

Lana Del Rey is an American singer, songwriter, and model. Born and raised in New York, Del Rey embarked on a music career in 2005 and first received widespread attention in 2011, when the music video for her single "Video Games" became a viral internet sensation. Del Rey received further recognition after her major-label debut Born to Die peaked at number two on the U.S. charts and was the fifth best-selling album of 2012. A remix of its single "Summertime Sadness", produced by Cedric Gervais, peaked at number six on the U.S., and the Paradise EP followed that November, garnering Del Rey her first Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. Three of the EP's tracks were featured in her short filmTropico, which premiered in December 2013.

Richard Julian

Richard Julian was one of the Songwriters Circle's originals performing many many times. He has become a critically acclaimed songwriter and recording artists who resides in both Brooklyn and New Orleans. He has released six albums on major and Independent labels and is also widely recognized as a member of The Little Willies, a country side project featuring the Internationally acclaimed singer songwriter Norah Jones. He won "best Independent album of the year." His songwriting skills have been widely acclaimed by such artists as Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones and Randy Newman.  

Tina Shafer

Who took over running the  New York Songwriters Circle in 1991 and has been booking and running the series for 25 years out of the West Village historical "Bitter End". She has also has run Circles in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Tina got signed to Warner Chappelle music and went on to become a songwriter who has penned songs for such artists as Celine Dion, Sheena Easton, Phoebe Snow and Tony Winner, Billy Porter (Kinky Boots) and  Anna Vissi. Her song "Love is On the Way" was the center piece song in Bette Midler's filmThe First Wives Club. Celine Dion's Album ""Lets Talk about Love" went on to sell over 33 million copies world wide.She has opened for Suzanne Vega, and performed alongside  John Oates, March Cohn, Phoebe Snow, Jesse Harris, Vanessa Carlton, and Eric Bazilian from "The Hooters", Chris Baron and many others. She has released three independent records:
The Backyard Sky 2001, Promises to Eve 2004, The Good Ones 2012. She continues to run The Songwriters Circle and is one of New York's top vocal coaches.

Lisa Loeb

Lisa Loeb was the first artist to come out of the New York Songwriters Circle as a commercial success. She is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She launched her career in 1994 with the song "Stay (I Missed You)", which was included in the film Reality Bites. She was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract. Her five studio CDs include her major label debut, the gold-selling Tails and its follow-up, the Grammy-nominated, gold-selling Firecracker.

Chris Barron

Chris has performed numerous times at the Songwriters Circle and was already a success when coming to our stage. He is the lead singer to the famous "Spin Doctors" an American rock band formed in New York City, best known for their early 1990s hits, "Two Princes", and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong", which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 7 and No. 17 respectively. The current members are founders Chris Barron (born Christopher Gross; vocals), Eric Schenkman (guitar and vocals), Aaron Comess (drums and percussion), and Mark White (bass guitar). In April 2013, the band released If the River Was Whiskey, their sixth studio album.

Everette Bradley

Everette was also one of the Songwriters Circle originals, playing numerous times. He went on to co-write and produce hit musical "Swing" and directed and performed in the hit musical "Stomp." He has played percussion on numerous artists tours from Bruce Springstein, Hall and Oates, Bobby Mcferin, Carly Simon, and Jon Bon Jovi to name a few.

Kate Voegele

Performed at the New York Songwriters Circle 2006 and was our first contest winner. She was introduced to the Songwriters Circle by Tina's brother in law , councilman Jim Rokakis of Cleveland Ohio, where she is from. She made her musical debut in 2003 with the release of her album, "The Other Side". She performed numerous local live shows to promote the album, and toured with artists such as John Mayer. In 2005, she released her second extended play, Louder Than Words. Both had local success, and helped raise awareness of Voegele as an artist. During this time period, Voegele performed at events such as Farm Aid to promote her music, and began posting her music on popular social media network MySpace. She also won numerous awards and honors for her songwriting abilities. Voegele officially signed with Interscope Records in 2006, and immediately began working on her official debut album. Her first studio album, Don't Look Away, was released in 2007 to generally positive reviews. The album became her first to chart on the Billboard 200, and was re-released numerous times since its release. It spawned two singles, one of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. While promoting this album, Voegele began appearing as Mia Catalano in the television series One Tree Hill. This made her acting debut, and helped promote her music. She would remain a recurring cast member for four seasons, lasting until 2011.

Norah Jones

Norah Jones is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade

Gavin Degraw

Gavin Shane DeGraw is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He rose to fame with the single "I Don't Want to Be" from his debut album Chariot which became the theme song for the television drama series One Tree Hill.

John Oates

John Oates is an American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, musician, songwriter and record producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo, Hall & Oates (with Daryl Hall). Although Oates's main role in the duo was guitarist, he also co-wrote many of the Top 10 songs that they recorded, including (with Hall): "Sara Smile" (the song refers to Hall's then-girlfriend, Sara Allen), "She's Gone", and "Out of Touch", as well as (with Allen and Hall): "You Make My Dreams", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", "Maneater", and "Adult Education". He also sang lead vocals on several more singles in the Hot 100, such as "How Does It Feel to Be Back", "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (a remake of the 1965 song performed by The Righteous Brothers that was written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil), on which Oates shared lead vocals with Hall, and "Possession Obsession" (with Allen & Hall). Oates also co-wrote and sang backup on the song "Electric Blue", recorded by the Australian band Icehouse, which was a Billboard Top Ten hit. He also co-wrote, produced and sang duet with the Canadian group The Parachute Club on the 1987 song "Love is Fire" which was a Top 30 hit in Canada.

Oates was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, and in 2014, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of Hall & Oates.

Nick Deutsch / Listening Team

Nick Deutsch (born December 8th, 1986) is a New York based piano playing indie pop Singer/Songwriter originally from Wilmette Illinois. . Jazz arranging and Harmony brought Nick to New York University where he met and became friends with Tina Shafer, CEO of the New York Songwriter’s Circle (has worked with Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, Vanessa Carlton, Gavin Degraw, Norah Jones). Her support and guidance led Nick to booking shows at CBGB’s, The Bitter End, Rockwood Music Hall, Café Vivaldi, Ella Lounge and working with producer Joey Auch. He has shared the stage with established singer-songwriters Ian Axle (Great Big World) and Jillette Johnson as well as recorded with American Idol’s finalist Marissa Pontecorvo. Songs off his debut “Crazy Ride” have let to nominations for Best Pop Male Vocal (2013 IMEA Awards), The Great American Song (2013 POP Category) and featured interviews with Pop Vulture Magazine, Apple Inc. the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. Nick was also the recipient of a 2011 Philadelphia Songwriter's Project Award, a 2011 New York Songwriter's Circle Award, a 2014 American Songwriter’s Award Nomination, a 2014 International Songwriter’s Contest award, 5 UK songwriting semi-finalist nominations, a 2014 ISC award, a 2015 International Vocalist Runner Up Nomination, a 2016 semi finalist nomination and his lyrics (Crazy Ride) have won nominations and been printed in the nationally published American Songwriter magazine (May 2014).
Follow Nick at www.nickdeutschmusic.com
@Nick_Deutsch

Rosabella Gregory

ROSABELLA GREGORY
Gregory is an award-winning singer-songwriter, composer and graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. She has released three solo album and EPs. Gregory has toured internationally, and supported the legendary, Jools Holland. A live BBC Radio 2 session with "Whispering Bob" Harris remains her most treasured experience to date. Harris -an avid supporter of Gregory - says of her piano style : "it reminds me of watching Brian May play the guitar". Career highlights include collaborations with Bob James, Manolo Badrena and Go West frontman, Peter Cox. Gregory won the International Prize in the 2007 New York Songwriter's Circle Song Contest, where Grammy award-winner Russ Titelman, compared her to "a young Joni Mitchell". She describes her songwriting style as "classical songwriting with a filmic twist". Current projects move Gregory towards the world of Theatre. Collaborating with her lyricist, twin, she has composed the score to a new musical, commissioned by Tony award-winning producers Corey Brunish and Brisa Trinchero. Gregory also lectures Composition, at the University Of West London.

Neil Emond / Videographer

Neil first became involved with the documenting the New York Songwriters Circle in 2008, after a chance meeting on the street with photographer Robbie Michaels. For the past seven years has been the videographer and custodian of the library of over 1,500 videos.

Robbie Michaels / Photographer

Capturing Artists in their ZONE is what I am most passionate about.
I have been blessed with the job of shooting The NYSC for upwards of 12 years and look forward to many more years!