Live Music Erin McNamee | Leavenworth

Erin McNamee was born and raised in Sultan WA, a small Cascade Mountain town in the Skykomish River Valley. She was a true singer from the time she could speak. Her mother will tell a story about a determined 5 year old who sang in preschool for her class, her favorite records strewn about every afternoon as she sang along with every word. Singing was Erin’s destiny set in motion.

Spending childhood and teenage years in regional choirs: Seattle Girls Choir, Seattle Opera and Symphony choruses, guitar lessons and of course; voice. As a young singer-songwriter, Erin became as a solo artist at the age of 16, singing songs and playing guitar at open mics and coffee shops, which she had to drive to Seattle to find back then. She started meeting her early music friends back in those days.

After high school, Erin moved to Seattle to a tiny studio apartment on Capitol Hill for music study at Cornish College of the Arts. It seemed to be a perfect fit. While schooling at Cornish, as her artistic interests varied greatly. She studied everything she could. As Erin says, “music school is where you ditch your TV and start consuming nothing but music… 24/7.” The faculty at Cornish were amazing musicians, and emphatically guided the course for good listening, practice and jumping into ensembles.