Michelle Latimer has been performing as both a trumpeter and vocalist for 20 years. Michelle taught herself to play at seven by sneaking in time on her brother's horn while no one was around, and persevered when an acute asthma diagnosis at 11 led doctors to suggest that her parents discourage her efforts, insisting that she could never be very good. On the contrary, she quickly excelled in both singing and playing.

By the age of 17, Latimer had toured Europe as an ensemble principal and soloist, and by 18 was working as Artist-In-Residence at premier performing arts summer camps. Latimer studied trumpet with David Hickman and Ray Sasaki at the University of Illinois, where she also studied the Great American Songbook with renowned vocalist William Warfield.
Latimer has been a fan of jazz for many a moon, but only began studying it after moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early '90s. Since then, she has appeared at such venues as Jazz at Pearl's, Bix and the Maybeck Recital Hall, with the likes of Dick Whittington (pianist and host of the Concord Jazz series "Live at the Maybeck"), two-time Grammy Award-nominated pianist Mark Little and Calvin Keys. Her jazz education includes years with both Whittington and Little.

After taking a four-year hiatus from playing while working as a newspaper reporter, Michelle resumed her musical career in 1996. Since 1997, she has served as principal trumpeter for the Contra Costa Wind Symphony, with whom she is a frequent soloist. Latimer played and sang with the Vincent Robinson Collective before creating the Michelle Latimer (Jazz) Quartet in late 2001. She is a member of the former San Francisco-based pop group El Greco, now known as Siamese Sex Show, and appears playing trumpet and singing vocals on a CD bearing that name as well as on "The Pink CD." Latimer also plays clubs and parties all around the Bay Area with the SF-based band Funky Little Shack and at San Francisco '49ers home games with QFO. Michelle's composition and playing skills are featured on Fightmaster's 2001 release "Closer Now," which is available in SF Bay Area record stores and at www.cdbaby.com, and she is a guest artist playing flugelhorn on the upcoming CD by legendary timbale player Benny Velarde entitled "Viva Velarde," scheduled for release in 2002.

For more information, please see www.michellelatimer.com