About Sheila
Born and raised in eastern North Carolina, this multilingual, multi-instrumental artist has been honing her craft for decades. Thanks to a naturally curious and open mind, and an encouraging family that fostered her interests, she's explored various genres, languages, and cultures through music. Her travels, academic studies, and time living abroad, added to a deep-rooted love of American genres, has led the versatility Sheila displays. With velvety vocals and a crisp, clean nylon string guitar, she always delivers excellence.
Early Life & Musical Exposure
Sheila always loved music and grew up with her mother and grandparents, who had varying interests. Her mother was a fan of musical acts of the 70s like Carole King, Joan Baez, and Linda Ronstadt, and she exposed Sheila to rock, pop, and blue-eyed soul growing up. A Depression-Era Eastern North Carolina native, her grandmother liked the old hymns and Pat Boone. Granddad, a Philadelphia native, loved big bands, Tommy Dorsey, and Frank Sinatra. Sheila loved them all, and still does.
Sheila as a Young Musician
Sheila started experimenting with music as a student at 8 years old, when she picked up her older sister's clarinet and started learning a few notes. A couple of years later, she chose the trumpet as her main instrument and continued that through college. In fact, her first job was playing Taps at military funerals in her hometown, which she did from 8th grade through college. Even in other classes, she couldn't get music out of her mind. Her first English research paper in high school was about Louis Armstrong's influence on American music, which began her interest in music as an academic pursuit as well as a practical one. In high school, she was a determined and disciplined musician, and she earned she a spot in the U.S. Collegiate Wind Band, which toured eight Western European countries the summer before her senior year. Exposure to the diversity of language, culture, and music stuck with her for the long term.
Sheila at the Interactive Music Museum in Málaga, Spain
Sheila playing a rotary valve trumpet in Austria
Becoming a Musical Academic
A scholarship student at East Carolina University, she studied trumpet for two years until her academic interests turned to Spanish and she transferred to Meredith College, but not before she lived in Mexico for a year and taught English at a community college. There she received an unforgettable cultural and musical education. Upon moving back to the US, she continued her studies, and she now holds a BA in Spanish from Meredith College and an MA in Spanish Literature from NC State University. These experiences have lent heavily to her interest in Latin American music.
Just like in high school, Sheila always found a way to tie music into her studies, such that her Master's thesis was musically focused (19th Century Spanish operetta called Zarzuelas). She also wrote a thesis comparing Mexican Narcocorridos to American Gangta Rap, which was presented at an academic conference.
A Global Perspective
During this time, she also explored Brazilian and French music as a matter of personal interest, including diction studies to improve her accent in those languages. She has a great love of bossa nova in its original Portuguese, as well as French chanson in the vein of Charles Trenet & Édith Piaf.
Always loving to sing but lacking accompaniment, Sheila picked up the guitar at 25 years old and relentlessly pursued that until she could present herself as a one-woman act. What you see now is the culmination of years of exposure, determination, discipline, and most of all, love for music.
Sheila with her
first guitar