About Me
Purchase Michelle Latimer's music at iTunes, Amazon.com, CDUniverse, CDBaby, and virtually anywhere else music is sold. For signed copies of CDs, order through www.michellelatimer.comMichelle Latimer has been performing as both a trumpeter and vocalist for 20 years. Michelle taught herself to play at the age of seven by sneaking in time on her brother's horn while no one was around, and persevered when an acute asthma diagnosis when she was 11 led doctors to suggest that her parents discourage her efforts, insisting that she could never be very good. On the contrary, she quickly excelled in both singing and playing.By the age of 17, Latimer had toured Europe as an ensemble principal and soloist, and by 18 was working as Artist-In-Residence at premier performing arts summer camps. Latimer studied trumpet with David Hickman, Ray Sasaki and Michael Tunnell at the University of Illinois, where she also studied the Great American Songbook with renowned vocalist William Warfield.Latimer has been a fan of jazz for many a moon, but only began studying it after moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid '90s. Since then, she has appeared at top Bay Area venues such as Jazz at Pearl's, The Empire Plush Room and the Maybeck Recital Hall, as well as major jazz houses in L.A., Chicago and New York City, with the likes of Laurence Hobgood, Mark Levine, Dick Whittington (pianist and host of the Concord Jazz series "Live at the Maybeck"), two-time Grammy Award-nominated pianist Mark Little and neo-bop powerhouse David Hazeltine. She has studied with Whittington, Little and Hazeltine. Latimer feels that she's found her true calling in jazz. "I fell out of love with classical music study as a result of boredom and difficulty with the academic side of things, and had always wondered about how I might combine singing and playing - something that just didn't seem like an option as a classical musician," Latimer said. "I started listening to a lot of jazz while working as a newspaper reporter. One day, a friend turned me on to Chet Baker, and I immediately was hooked and knew what I wanted to do."After taking a five-year hiatus from playing while working as a journalist, Michelle resumed her musical career in 1996. In addition to her solo and small ensemble work, she has also served for five years as assistant principal trumpeter with the Golden Gate Park Municipal Band (San Francisco's city-funded professional musical group) and appears annually as a vocal and horn soloist with the group. In the past few years, Michelle has become a high-demand freelance soloist for religious and military services of all types, and serves as "resident trumpeter" for the Presidio Post Chapel. She played and sang jazz with area jazz groups before creating the Michelle Latimer Quartet in 2001. Michelle has appeared as a sideman on several recordings by well-known Bay Area artists, and self-produced a critically-acclaimed debut entitled "Michelle Latimer Sings and Plays" in 2005, showcasing strong vocal and horn skills as well as a talent for composition, lyrics, arranging and producing on a 12-song CD featuring the finest jazz talent the Bay Area has to offer. The date garnered critical praise, and airplay on more than 100 radio stations. Michelle began touring as a headliner in 2004 and has appeared in several of the world's top jazz clubs as ranked by Downbeat Magazine. Latimer is also included in the 2005 book "The World of Jazz Trumpet," authored by fellow trumpeter Scotty Barnhart (of Florida State U and the Count Basie Orchestra) and published by Hal Leonard. Latimer continues to live in San Francisco and is currently writing material for her next project.
