Jane Andrä (pronounced "Andrae") was born in the US but spent most of her childhood in Italy, Germany and Austria.

 

Jane received her first guitar for her 16th birthday. Her older sister taught her how to play basic chords, but she never received formal lessons until her late twenties.

 

She returned to the US in 1993 to enroll at the University of Cincinnati, where she joined her first band - The Fries Cafe Bluegrass Band. She credits this band with teaching her how to sing harmony and play with other musicians.

 

After five years of undergraduate work, she longed to audition for the College Conservatory of Music in order to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a singer. Unfortunately she had already been accepted into graduate school in the medical field and her parents urged her to follow that path.

 

Her graduate program was highly demanding, however, so her one escape from the workload became the Friday night open mic night at The Frontroom Cafe, hosted by Bruce Dalzel (a significant inspiration to her later acoustic writings). It was here that she began her first public appearances as a solo singer-songwriter and also befriended fellow singer-songwriter Jason Ludwig, who later became the lead singer for the rock band Noctaluca and made a guest appearance on her song "Sunrise" (2008 Hot Like The Sun release).

 

After graduating in 2001, she spontaneously moved to Los Angeles to try again to pursue her dream of becoming a jazz singer. Her plan was to sing at night and work by day until she landed a recording contract. Six months after arriving in L.A, however, both career and dream came to an abrupt end when she suffered a serious injury that forced her to return home again.

 

It wasn't until 2005 that she was able to begin working or performing again and was invited to audition for the Swingtime Big Band in Cincinnati. She became their lead jazz vocalist for the next four years and performed in front of the Rosemary Clooney house, a long-tme favorite of hers.

 

As word spread of her vocal skills, she was also invited to sing with the Jump Jive Show Band in 2008, who she later recorded with.

 

She also wrote and recorded her first cd of original acoustic folk songs - Hot Like The Sun (2008).

 

Although she loved singing with big bands, Jane wanted to develop a more improvisational jazz style with a wider repertoire, which marked the beginning of The Jane Andrae Jazz Ensemble in 2009.

 

Before leaving Cincinnati, she had the pleasure of recording with the internationally renowned gyspy jazz group The Faux Frenchmen.

 

Jane currently resides in Burlington, Vermont and is working on her follow-up acoustic CD as well as completing her three upcoming jazz releases.