Kelli Armentrout – Jazz Vocalist

Hometown: South Bend

Education: BS: Music Education, Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais, IL

Singing Experience:Truth in Jazz, Jazz Assemblage (Elkhart), IUSB Jazz Ensemble Vocalist, Numerous Jazz combo experiences including: Pat Heiden Jazz Quartet Trading Three’s Jazz Trio, Bobby Charles Quintet, Mystic Blues

Career Highlights:Most recent include: Elkhart Jazz Festival, my first one being in 2006, when I was privileged to share the stage with Bob Mellinger!, Soloist with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra in the summer of 2006! Played Aldonza/Dulcinea in “Man of LaMancha,” the inaugural performance for the South Bend Civic Theater, Jan. 2007

Why I Sing With TIJ: For the absolute thrill of it! There is nothing like standing in front of a big band singing the music you love. Jazz is the music of the soul. You can express, find, lose and abandon yourself completely in it!