Ellen Robinson

One of the Bay Area’s busiest music directors, jazz singer Ellen Robinson has helped take many a vocalist from the level of simply wanting to sing to actually being on the stage. Currently she is directing two performing groups which she founded in 1981, the longstanding Anything Goes Choruses in San Francisco and the East Bay, as well as leading other community singing groups and teaching private voice students of all ages. She has been honored with a prestigious Jefferson Award for her many decades of community service through her music. Ellen is also at home as a performer herself with a bevy of sold-out shows in her wake and several CD recordings. Her musical journey has led her through a variety of musical styles: singer-songwriter, folk, rock, bluegrass, the Spoolie Sisters (an Andrew Sisters–type trio), cabaret, musical theater, Vocolot (a women’s a cappella sextet), and, finally, jazz. With this diverse background, she is notable for guiding vocalists toward mastery of nearly any genre of song. “As a singer you are the instrument. There’s nothing between you and the audience, so I believe this makes singing one of the most exhilarating ways to make music. Creating music and helping people find their own voice is what I was put here to do.”