ELISE PRATT

Vocalist Elise Pratt, who moved to Hendersonville from St. Simons Island, GA, picks her repertoire from what she calls the American songbook. Her singing reflects early influences from her father, a jazz sax player, and of favorite singers Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae and Anita O’Day, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme. Her musical experience has included musical theater, dinner theater, a-cappella Renaissance singing groups, dancing, jazz duos and trios in clubs and restaurants. Originally from California, then Oklahoma, Elise studied French and became a Pan Am flight attendant based in New York. Next she worked as a graphic artist at the French Embassy, and then got a job designing album covers for Reader Digest’s recorded music division. This led to becoming co-owner the Greenwich Village jazz spot Syncopation for four years in the 1970s. Locally, Elise appears regularly at The Green Room on Main Street in downtown Hendersonville and at The Horse Shoe Café in Horse Shoe.  She also creates musical events at Cummings Cove Golf and Country Club and at The Cummings Memorial United Methodist Church. You may have heard her with Mike Holstein, Jonathan Pearlman, Bill Gerhardt, Michael Jefry Stevens, Pavel Wlosok, Geary Moore, Marc Yaxley, Aaron Coffin, or Patrick Boland more recently.

MIKE HOLSTEIN

Bassist/composer/guitarist Mike Holstein has been playing music since early childhood. His first instruments were guitar, violin, piano and drums. It wasn’t until he was attending Western Carolina University that he discovered the bass. His affinity for the instrument was immediately apparent. Within a few years he was performing regularly and became one of the most sought after bassists in the Southeast. From the beginning he was writing his own music. He joined the creative young jazz group, the Taken Back Quartet. This ensemble soon became a fixture on the thriving Asheville music scene. They played to a loyal almost cult-like following.
Since 2004, Mike has been a member of the band Cotangent, a New York based group led by pianist/composer Bill Gerhardt. He has played on two recordings with this band, “Stained Glass” and “Thrive”. He also appears on Tony Moreno’s “Trio Music” (Art of Life Records). He has performed with Joe Locke, Ingrid Jensen, Randy Brecker, Frank Kimbrough, Kendra Shank, Ron Horton, Marc Mommaas and Tim Horner among others. A truly gifted musician, Mike is finding himself more in demand than ever as he performs in jazz clubs in New York, throughout the Carolinas and continues to be a force with the Jazz Composers Forum.
Most recently, along with Justin Watt and Bill Bares, Mike co-hosts and organizes the Asheville Original Music Series, on the 4th Sunday of each month at The Isis Restaurant and Music Hall, featuring regional composers and their music. He plays in the orchestra for some of the Flat Rock Theater musicals and with The Bill Gerhardt Trio at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse on Fridays.  In addition to these projects, Mike teaches bass and guitar privately and also, along with Sharon LaMotte, coaches singers at The Asheville Music School.  He and Elise Pratt have been performing as a duo for the past few years.