Michelle Featherstone is a British singer-songwriter currently residing in the United States. She has received awards from the Royal Academy of Music for piano and violin and the Bishops Award for voice.
Early life and education
Michelle Featherstone was born in Chester, England, and raised in Cambridge, England. She began studying piano and composing original music at the age of nine. Featherstone initially did not intend to pursue a career in music. As an art history major and anthropology minor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, she had intended to pursue a career in museum curation. She moved to Europe and worked for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy. In Venice, she also worked on the American Pavilion for the Venice Biennale and as a liaison for visiting artists from White Cube gallery in London. Through her work with the Guggenheim she found herself managing the Walt Disney-Tishman Collection of African Art in Glendale, California. After about 18 months at Disney's Imagineering arm, Featherstone decided that "corporate America" wasn't for her and made the decision to reconnect with her musical roots while working as a waitress in Southern California. It was during one of her waitressing jobs that she played a few original songs on the piano while the scheduled performers were on a break and realised that she wanted to pursue a career in music. Mark Volman of the Turtles and Featherstone began playing the Los Angeles singer-songwriter circuit. Featherstone now resides in Hollywood, California. She is married to writer and director Zach Helm, and they have two children together.
Career
Featherstone's music has been featured on shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Las Vegas, One Tree Hill, How I Met Your Mother, Smallville, Ghost Whisperer and Parenthood. Her music has also been featured on reality television programs including MTV's The Hills, The City and ABC's America's Funniest Videos. Her voice has also appeared in move trailers, including for the rendition of Leaving on a Jet Plane for the movie 7500. She continues to work as a session singer for commercials and various other projects. In 2007, she signed to Windswept Pacific/Bug/BMG for her first publishing deal. She has had cuts with Scandinavian artist Teitur and French artist Nolwenn Leroy and has written for and with artists and writers from Nashville, Los Angeles and London.
