BIOGRAPHY
Ellen Vanderslice writes songs like they don't write anymore, and then she writes songs like nobody ever wrote before. With co-composer Mike Horsfall, she won First Prize Jazz in the 2002 USA Songwriting Competition for "Moonshadow Dance," and since 1999 she's won first place four times in the Blues/Jazz/R&B category of the Portland Songwriters Association National Song Contest. Ranging from heartbreaking ballads and chanson triste to uptempo novelty tunes and Western swing, each of Vanderslice's songs tells a fresh love story but feels like an old familiar friend the moment you hear it.
By day, Vanderslice is an architect and urban designer who manages transportation projects and works to make the world safe for walking, bicycling and taking transit. After dark she hones her musical chops in Portland's clubs as a jazz composer and vocalist, and regularly plays third trombone with the Carroll Raaum Swing Orchestra, a 20-piece big band.
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