Performing at Singer Spotlight North Shore on Thursday June 27 at Pops Highwood

Tom Broughton
From the moment I started playing guitar, the songs started to flow. Yet for many years, the songs I'd written simply collected in a spiral notebook. I was out doing what I thought I was supposed to be doing ... making a living in the corporate world. In time the process of making a living led to the feeling that part of me was actually dying. I couldn't deny the music. I started performing my songs around Chicago at various venues including The Old Town School, FitzGerald's and Uncommon Ground. The response was overwhelmingly positive. I also began moonlighting in the business office of a Chicago recording studio. There I met producers who gave me access to the studio, and guided me through the process of making a recording. The result is my first CD, Breaking through. The CD features four songs. The first cut, No Place Like Home was inspired by my father's childhood experiences in a small town outside of Boston. IntoThe Arms Of Love and Close To My Heart reflect the universal need to find ourselves and someone to love. The final cut, Inside Of My Heart is about holding on to that love. Music to me is a healing art. Every song that I write nourishes and connects me with the best parts of myself. My hope is that the music that comes through me will do the same for others.

Gretch Hill
Gretch Hill has been performing in the Chicago-land area for more than fifteen years, in venues spanning the dial: country-rock, acoustic-rock, Contemporary Christian, folk, and acapella. Her most recent collaboration placed nationally in the pop venue with Ed McMahon's internet "star-search." Her current CD, "Runaway" is available at Best Buy, and the track, "Giddy Up" has received airplay on US-99. Mommy to 15 month old twin boys is her most significant accomplishment yet; splitting her time between diaper changes and running her own internet company. Gretch's current project is an all original CD, targeted for year-end. "My goal is to write and sing music that can inspire people towards change. I believe music is a powerful vehicle - it can reach where the spoken word cannot, bringing inspiration and conviction in many forms. Whether we dance, sing, laugh or cry - when we share together in a moment - we live more fully." Gretch's original track, "Hold On" is featured on a compilation CD of Chicago area female artists, Viva la Diva, currently available at Tower Records. All proceeds benefit the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Amy Dolan
Whether singing in a Light Opera Works production of "The Merry Widow," directing a children's choir in Elk Grove Village, crooning in a Big Band Show, or writing her own original musical compositions, Amy counts herself lucky to be making music and making a living at it. Her musical theater experience has taken her across the country from Texas to Colorado, performing as Aldonza in "Man of La Mancha," Little Red Riding Hood in "Into the Woods," and Lizzie in "110 in the Shade. " Amy is thrilled to have just released her first CD, ON THE JOURNEY GOES! She is Director of Liturgy at Queen of the Rosary School in Elk Grove Village, and cantors and plays at St. Bonaventure Church in Lakeview. She has been a member of Holy Name Cathedral Choir and sang the National Anthem at Wrigley Field. ( They always win when she sings; needless to say, they need to hire her more!) When she's not singing, directing music or teaching private voice and piano lessons, Amy can be found dancing the night away, as a Jazzercise instructor. But even when she's working out, she's still singing!


Kiersten Carne
Kiersten is a graduate of Millikin University where she performed and studied music. For the past nine years, she's been teaching music to children and serving as choral director as well as choreographer in the Gurnee and the Palatine public school systems. She truly feels blessed to work with children, they keep her sharp and on her toes! She has also had opportunities to sing with some of the many, very talented Chicago area musicians, thanks to Tom VanKanagan and Paul Langford! Kiersten is in the process of writing her own music and doing some recording. Tonight she will perform a song she wrote for the first time ever!