Biography
Hailing from the green mountains of Vermont, Erin Bentlage is a GRAMMY® nominated artist who writes, sings, and plays music in search of organic sound. Raised in a small town near the city of Burlington, she developed her love for musical expression through ballet and classical piano lessons, and later found her space in the contemporary realm through jazz and improvisation as both a performer and an arranger/composer. Erin creates for the voice in all contexts and can be heard lending her sound on a wide variety of projects, from major motion picture film scores to singing (and often writing) background vocals for artists such as Pomplamoose, Moonchild, and more. In 2020, she was selected for the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s ‘New Note’ project for which she was commissioned to create a new, twenty-minute original work. Also in 2020, Erin co-created the multi-award-winning vocal supergroup and compositional collective, säje (rhymes with ‘beige’), alongside Sara Gazarek, Amanda Taylor, and Johnaye Kendrick; she has been writing and performing with the group ever since and they will release their debut album in early 2023 on the heels of a GRAMMY® nomination for their first-ever collaboration. As a solo artist, Erin has been featured on a growing number of projects including releases by Jacob Collier (Djesse Vol. 3), Kate McGarry (What To Wear In The Dark), Kiefer (When There’s Love Around), and a collaboration with Amber Navran (Golden Light). Erin is currently on faculty at the California State University, Northridge and the Los Angeles College of Music, where she teaches private voice lessons, musicianship, improvisation, and composition/arranging, and can be found performing and creating across the globe from Iceland to Italy and beyond.