QUICKVIEW- Summer Intensive at Souza Lima Conservatory in Sao Paulo Brazil, satellite of Berklee College of Music, Alumni of The Juilliard School, The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and The Singers Forum all in NYC, Shawn grew up singing, her mom a pianist entertained at home and in Southern churches. Shawn has a BA in Theatre and a minor in photography. Love-arts-and music ! Create, create, create, is her main drive and motto!
Sail Ladyship Sail!
LONG VERSION
After completing a summer intensive in Brazil at Souza Lima Conservatory in Sao Paulo, an extension of Berklee College of Music in Boston, she plans to start a new recording of all originals - Intimate Stranger, arranging as much Latin and bossa nova rhythms into the mixes as possible.
Shawn has recently performed in New York City and Washington DC with guitarist Peter Fields after spending 5 years entertaining around the Chesapeake Bay area and the Eastern Shore of MD and DE. Sunflower Café released in June 2009 was the result of a 6 month gig with Berklee grad and guitarist Bob Schaller and percussionist Dean Haemel. Sunflower Café is an acoustic Latin flavored tribute to 60’s & 70’s singer/songwriter’s. Her original song Pick A Rose has had some success with SPONY the NY based song pitching org. as well as an original narrative on the album, Remember the Connection, a muse with a morning sunrise. All Ladyship Records recordings can be heard and purchased on CDBABY SEARCH Shawn Wilhite.
In New York City Shawn appeared in Paramount’s First Wife’s Club, prime time TV Central Park West, as well as the Off Broadway production of Hysterical Blindness with Leslie Jordan. She also toured Japan for a year as a duo with Blue Satin Sound for Rising Star Productions with pianist Don Russell.
Shawn earned her BA in Dramatic Arts and Speech, minor in Photography at The Univ of N. AL. She then studied professionally in NYC at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and The Singer’s Forum, classical guitar and piano at The Juilliard School and private voice technique with Metropolitan Opera’s and Chair Professor of Voice and Drama at The New School Nova Thomas. She also studied vocal jazz with Motema’s jazz recording artist Amy London. Shawn performed in soaps Loving and Search for Tomorrow. Her first role in a musical was in the late 70’s at The American Embassy in Kuwait where her family lived for 6 years, playing Sally Cato in MAME. Back on tour in the US, some of her favorite roles to name a few Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, and summer stock playing Anne Sullivan in The Miracle Worker at Ivy Green the Birthplace of Helen Keller.
Shawn is a member of ASCAP, Actor’s Equity Assoc, AFTRA, Songwriter’s Guild of America and is a volunteer reader for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic chapter in NYC.
Shawn was born in Birmingham, AL and moved to Tuscumbia, when she was 4 where she sang in the church choir in Sheffield where her mom was organist. One of her brothers Alex born deaf, is a prolific artist and cochlear implant activist residing in Houston, TX. Shawn and her siblings were spoon fed on love, arts, and music as a way of life, and she continues to believe and practice this legacy with joy every day.