Performing at Chicago Singer Spotlight on Wednesday, July 9 at FitzGerald's.

Jessie Schoen
Jessie has been singing since the ripe old age of seven when she followed in her dad's footsteps and started singing jingles. She sang on Mc Donald's, Gatorade (Like Mike), Illinois Bell, and Illinois Cable Vision, to name a few. Lately she's doggedly been pursuing an acting career. Thus far, she's had a brief soiree in film where she appeared in the dark cheerleader comedy Sugar and Spice out on New Line Cinema. She is also taking acting classes at the Audition Studio. She is exclusive with Voices Unlimited for voice-over work and can currently be heard on Illinois Lottery and Aquafina spots. Musically she can be found singing in the shower and harmonizing to odd things such as fire alarms or electrical frequencies. She also was part of an experimental music group called the Unique Sounds Ensemble where she added vocal layering's and textures to create sonically rich soundscapes using self-constructed instruments.

Mario Connie
Mario is a life long native of Chicago's West side. He's been performing in front of live audiences since age 11. As a child, he began singing gospel songs he learned from his Grandmother. He has been influenced, in one way or another, by every singer he have ever heard. When it comes to music, he's eclectic and loves all styles of music and tries to include a little bit of everything in his act. He began his singing career with two boyhood friends and two of his cousins in a vocal group called The Mirations. They sang and danced throughout the Chicago area, and won one of the first city-wide talent shows. He has performed in Europe, Japan, the Philippines, and throughout the United States, as a soloist and with vocal groups such as Masterkey, the R&B Funk band High Velocity, the Country Rock group Americana, the Jazz Fusion group Tailormade, and the contemporary gospel group Telesis. Mario currently performs with the Alan Kaye Orchestra, and at clubs and theaters throughout the Midwest.

Alan Dawson & Eugenia Elliott
Eugenia Elliott has been singing in Chicago for about 8 years now and is very pleased to be singing at Singer Spotlight North Shore. Since the release of her CD called "Where or When" on Southport Records, Eugenia has performed at the Women of Southport Jazz Festival and has been heard at Pops for Champagne, Catch 35 and the Cultural Center in Chicago. She has been happily exploring the world of bluegrass harmonies and was recently heard with the band Charming Axe at the Old Town School Folk and Roots Festival. Eugenia would like to thank her family and friends for their continued support, love and semi-regular butt-kicking, reminding her to get out there and sing!

Alan Dawson recorded his first song at the age of three and he has been performing ever since. His professional music career began as a drummer for local bands while in high school, and later as the drummer/singer for the Chicago based band the "Cryan' Shames" on their 1968 "Synthesis" album. He has sung on commercial jingles for United Airlines, Juicy Fruit, Meisterbrau, 7-up, Franco-American, and McDonalds. He took time off from touring and performing live to raise two sons, and is now back at work with his current musical partners Jim Welton and Bobby Schiff, with whom he was a member of the country-rock band "Cotton". While versed in a number of musical styles, his firsts loves are ballads and (being from Chicago, of course) blues. He would like to thank Becca and Amy for the opportunity to sing at this wonderful venue along with this group of talented singers and musicians.

Paul Zimmerman
Paul Zimmermann works as a vocalist, percussionist and actor. He studied acting at the Goodman School of Drama and music at the American Conservatory of Music, both in his native Chicago. After starting his career in Chicago, he relocated to the East Coast where he had the good fortune to be chosen to participate in a master class lead by Bobby McFerrin at the Omega Institute in upstate New York. With some of the musicians he met at that workshop, he founded the a cappella groups Some of Us and Mouth Music, performing along the Eastern Seaboard and as far away as Seoul, South Korea. With baritone Mark Johnson, he started the a cappella twosome DuoVoce, the first group of it's kind, which had the audacity to sing two voice arrangements of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and Pat Metheny Group's 'First Circle', among others. He had the pleasure of singing with New York Voices for the debut of David Byrne's orchestral piece 'The Forest' at Town Hall in NYC. He continues to have a working relationship and friendship with keyboardist/composer Andre Gribou, having most recently performed with Mr. Gribou at Ohio University in March of 2000, at which time they were filmed for the public television production "Focus on the Arts". Currently, Paul works as an on-camera talent and studio singer in Chicago, and travels nationally and internationally as a Corporate Spokesperson for such companies as Rockwell, Heidelberg USA, and American Software, among others. He resides in Oak Park, IL with his wife Linda and children Ethan and Jonah. Paul feels truly blessed to be a part of Blue Skies and looks forward to much success with these singers.