Community Spotlight: Kelli Frances Corrado
Kelli Frances Corrado is a dark-folktronica singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and occasional visual artist who you will find frequenting the halls of Youngstown on an almost daily basis. Kelli teaches music classes to students of all ages, including lessons in guitar, vocals, and songwriting, and holds many of her lessons here at Youngstown. As she puts it, Youngstown is “an inspired space to teach music lessons for the community.”
Kelli has been involved with Youngstown for several years, and uses Youngstown classrooms not only to support West Seattle arts and culture, but because Youngstown’s volunteer exchange program allows her to put volunteer time towards her use of the facilities. Impressively, though she keeps very busy as a music artist and instructor, Kelli is one of Youngstown’s most dedicated volunteers. She lends a hand in our office on a weekly basis, and puts in additional time as a house manager for special events. Kelli likes to contribute at Youngstown because she values the support Youngstown offers to local artists, saying “Youngstown is a thriving artistic community that provides many artists and aspiring artists a place to live, create, and learn about the artistic world of West Seattle, as well as connecting them to the large array of resources around them.”
On June 14th, Kelli will be celebrating her most recent CD release in Youngstown’s Movement Studio, and invites the local community to join her for the event. Kelli enjoys welcoming new visitors to Youngstown so she can help spread the word about the great spaces Youngstown has to offer. Specifically, Kelli would love to see the Seattle music community make greater use of the performance venues here. “Youngstown has a beautiful theater and movement space which is perfect to hear and perform music,” she says. The new album, Shepherdess, is Kelli’s second album, produced in collaboration with Jeffery Mcnulty and Brian Deck, and is her first release with Flat Field Records. Shepherdess features “a lush blend of ethereal vocals floating over trip-hop-influenced beats and electronically-driven layers of strings, synthesizers, and autoharp” (Flat Field Records).
Learn more about Kelli and her music at http://www.kellifrancescorrado.com/ and her music instruction at http://kellicorrado.blogspot.com/.