Cheryl B. Engelhardt

This is my story. I wrote it myself, because I know the story best. It is not very long, because I am not very old.
I started playing the piano before I could read, and music became a huge part of my life, though I didn’t fully realize it until 2 decades later. Grade school and high school introduced me to choirs and musical theater and all of that jazz that I would call my “hobby”. But it was when studying to be a marine biologist at Cornell University that I faced the music, (pun intended) and picked up music as a double major. At Cornell, I was introduced to scoring film, digital music composition, a capella arrangements, and writing charts. These are the skills I still use every day.
After graduation, I worked for the government, SCUBA diving with research teams. I loved it, but knew I missed my piano. When I was on a break, I got an opportunity through a family friend to write some music for websites. Thus started my music career. Since then, I have had a number of jobs (personal trainer, NYC messenger, swim instructor, piano teacher, music editor) that all subtly pointed me to my current position. I had many interests, and while pursuing a career in music, I would pay the bills doing something else I liked.
When my messenger job turned into a real position at an advertising editing company, I realized the music I wrote could be used in commercials. All I needed was a band, a recording, and voila! My music is on TV. At least, that was the initial plan… After meeting the right musicians and doing a few gigs to rehearse for the recording, I had a small epiphany that sounded something like this: “oh geez, I really like gigging with a band. Let’s go for the Grammies”. And here I am, having been a musician all my live and NEVER expecting to dive head first into the music industry, producing albums and touring with a full band. The first album, “Shoes Off And Run” came out in November 2004, and acts as a snapshot of where I was as a musician. Although my newest album, “Craving The Second” (being released this September) is much stronger than “Shoes Off And Run”, I can’t even compare the two albums. It’s like looking a picture of myself when I was 6 and one when I was 15 and deciding which is better. They just are. I’m growing, I can feel it, and my love for what I am doing and with whom I am doing it has also greatly developed.
In the past two years, I’ve met the best musicians in the world that I have been able to snatch up and call “my band”. We share vans and rooms and stages and way too many bad jokes. I consider myself one of the luckiest singer/songwriters on the planet. We are ready to take the plunge into the world of “next steps” and promote “Craving The Second” like my life depended on it. ‘Cause it sorta does.
I currently live in Harlem, where I run my mad-scientist lab of promoting the album and booking my tours. I have a master plan of going with the flow, and I challenge myself to steer the flow. Right now I’m headed towards the land of newly-released records. But like I said in the album credits, the album seemed to make itself- like my unexpected career in music, I wasn’t expecting a full-blown record to develop out of a 5-song EP started on tour last June. The songs kept coming, and the musicians to play them with me were close behind. The snowball effect in full force has landed me here…. for the time being.
visit cbemusic.com
buy the album off CD Baby
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