Press Archive: 060318- Arts Center Tunes Up for Spring Concert Series Maryland Gazette 050901- Sound Foundation Presents Creative Alliance 050505- LIVE Section: Cheap Date The Baltimore Sun 050301- Angela Taylor wins Songwriting Contest Peabody News 050301b- Peabody celebrates Alan Kefauver & 20th Anniversary of Peabody’s Recording Program Peabody News 030926- Fundraiser Features Melodic Sounds of Angela Taylor Severna Park Voice 030820- Taylor Pulls the Strings Towson Times 030813- Taylor Made Baltimore Guide 030801- Dear Readers Music Monthly 030619- Sing a Song for Bowie Bowie Blade 030109- Be-Cool Picks Angela Taylor The Washington Post 021106- Food for Thought The Morning Call 021101- BeCool Ad Campaign EQ, Keyboard, other national mags 020814- Oh say! Can you see... The Baltimore Guide 020604- Interview with Billy Zero XM Satellite Radio (Audio) 020601- "Strong" Response to Debut CD Johns Hopkins Magazine 011206- Rams Head Tavern concert features Bowie girl's music Bowie Blade 010919- Best of Baltimore 2001 - Best Solo Music Artist City Paper 010901- Capitol Groove: Angela Taylor Unsung Hero 010801- CD Review: Angela Taylor * Songs for Strong Girls Music Monthly 010630- Angela Taylor to perform on "Food Nation with Bobby Flay" July 17th Food Network 010618- Angela Taylor Appearance on Love and Money (Quicktime Movie) 010201- Angela Taylor 432miles: Independent Music Magazine 000619- "Best of Baltimore" Angela Taylor to Join JHU Peabody Preparatory Faculty Peabody Conservatory 000101- Who is Angela Taylor? University Reporter 991005- In the Spotlight: Angela Taylor The Retriever Weekly 990930- Angela Taylor to sing at Walters Art Gallery Johns Hopkins Newsletter 990915- Best of Baltimore 1999 - Best Solo Music Artist City Paper 990902- Canton woman to sing at State Fair The Baltimore Guide 990902- Last weekend for the State Fair The Baltimore Sun 990722- Alumna comes back for jazz concert Greenbelt News Review 990604- She writes the songs, and sings them, too Prince George's Journal Roosevelt Graduate Angela Taylor is making a name for herself in the music world. She writes the songs, and sings them, too By NICOLE BARNES Journal Staff Writer    Musical artist Angela Taylor returned to her alma mater to perform, not only as the flutist for which it knows her, but as singer.    Taylor performed at Eleanor Roosevelt High School's band concert recently, which featured five bands and the school's Alumni Jazz Band. Taylor played the flute for the Alumni Jazz Band and then sang "Mood Indigo" by Duke Ellington.    Taylor said she became involved in music "as soon as I could speak." Her mother was an aspiring concert pianist and her father was a vocalist in the gospel group The Quarter Tones. Growing up, she split her time between Bowie and Greenbelt.    Taylor learned to play the piano at the age of 3. As she grew older her interest in musical instruments expanded and she learned to play the flute, drums and guitar.    "Music is my life. I do this because I am compelled," Taylor said. "I wouldn't recommend a career in music for the faint of heart. It is a tough road, but if you have the drive you can find success."    Taylor said Roosevelt is where her interest in music grew more serious under the direction of Sally Wagner, a band director at the school.    Taylor said Wagner inspired her to pursue music as a career. She gets other inspiration from alternative-pop artists Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and Shawn Colvin and singer Natalie Cole.    Wagner said most of the students who are in the music program at Roosevelt pursue careers in music alter graduation. Wagner said she knew Taylor as a flutist when she attended Roosevelt. "I wish I had more time to talk with her to find out how it happened," Please see SINGER, A7

Singer returns to alma mater with successes SINGER from A1 Wagner said about Taylor's transition from instrument to vocals. 'She did a wonderful job. You can tell when she sang, the audience was really into what she was doing."    Taylor never sang in the choirs at Roosevelt because she had no room in her schedule. She did get opportunities to sing, however, in some of the musicals at the school.    Taylor is the first to admit she has not always been a good singer. "I was horrible, but it was something that I really wanted to do, so I kept at it," she said. "I just kept singing and taking lessons and eventually I grew into the singer I am today.    "The first singing performance that I can remember was in junior high chorus, and my first solo performance was in [Eleanor Roosevelt's] production of 'Anything Goes'," she said. 'At that point I was starting to get better, good enough to land a good role. It was because of my previous rejections [that] I strived to achieve."    After graduating from Roosevelt in 1988, Taylor attended Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, where she received a dual degree in Flute and Recording Engineering and Voice. She also received a Master's degree in Computer Music.    Taylor said her style is unique because of her conservatory training. She said she has vocal control and range uncommon to alternative music. She said her compositional style, which includes winds, strings, piano and baroque motifs, is also unique.    She made her decision to pursue a solo career after the group she sang with for three years, Termite, broke up in 1997. She said her first major success came when she was among the finalists in the Lilith Fair Talent Search in 1998 and again this year.    The advice Taylor would give to people seeking a career in music is "learn how to play an instrument. Take lessons from someone good because if you aren't any good, no one will listen," she said. "One piece of advice a teacher gave me is: 'Practice like you are performing and perform like you are practicing.'"    "Normally, when I perform I do my own original alternative-pop compositions," she said. She normally writes all the songs she performs. One of the songs, titled "Sad Thing to Wonder," is about the what-ifs of life.    "I had the idea one day how life is a series of random events, which shape your present and future life," she said. "It focuses on thinking, 'What if I hadn't broken up with one of my boyfriends; would I have met my husband and be as happy as l am?'"    She has written dozens of songs. She said she is able to write prolifically because of a method she uses. "I have a secret weapon. I carry a handheld microrecorder everywhere I go," she said. "I never sit down and say, 'OK, it's time to write a song now.' When I sit down to work on a song I pull ideas and melodies from the flashes of inspiration that are recorded on my cassette recorder."    Her ultimate goal as a singer/songwriter is to put out a series of successful albums on her own label, Skinny Girl Records, "and to reach a national audience. I can often be heard performing at venues in the Washington-Baltimore area as well as larger cities in the U.S."