About Annelise
Annelise LeCheminant calls her style “Alternative-Groove-Rock” and has been described as enchanting & refreshing. Her sound is as if KT Tunstall & Sheryl Crow met Muse for lunch in the movie Chocolat. With three albums under her belt Annelise is poised to release her best work yet this year.
Annelise started her musical journey on the violin at the age of 4 and then moved on to piano, voice & guitar throughout her younger years. When she was 23 she moved to New York City to become an interior designer. Three weeks after relocating she woke up to an unwelcome surprise, every joint and muscle in her body were so inflamed she could barely turn over in bed. Alone in her NYC studio apartment she began the battle of figuring out her mystery disease. Six weeks later she moved back home to recover near family. The aftermath of this experience is where her first song “Gettin’ High” came from which is about the excitement and tragedy of her New York experience (and the pot her neighbor smoked that came through the walls). She eventually recorded the song and she knew the moment she sang into the microphone that she could spend the rest of her life writing and recording music. To this day she still doesn’t know what made her so ill but she knows it was a huge turning point in her life.
Post New York City she performed for three years in a professional recording choir touring the Western United States & filming two concerts in Jerusalem, Israel. During this time she realized she needed to pursue music full time. She also developed vocal problems and began searching for a solution.
In 1999 she met world renowned vocal coach Brett Manning who convinced her to move to Nashville. She spent four years studying with Brett extensively to rehabilitate her voice In total she spent seven years writing, recording, performing, studying & rubbing shoulders with some of the best musicians in the world. She co-produced three albums with Producer Matt Wilder, two of original music and one traditional Christmas album. Her dream team of musicians have worked on all her projects and include Gary Lunn on bass (Dolly Parton, Idina Menzel, Amy Grant, and more), Steve Brewster on drums (Dolly Parton, Bob Seger, Chicago, Jewel, and more) and Paul Allen on electric guitar (Adele, Big & Rich, Jewel, and more).
While in Nashville she and Matt Wilder co-produced an artist showcase called The WilderSide of Nashville providing a stage for non-country acts. Each month 4-5 different acts would perform at Nashville hotspot 12th and Porter.
Annelise performed multiple shows at the 2002 Winter Olympic Festival in Salt Lake City, opened for Lee Greenwood in New Hampshire, sang the National Anthem at Nashville’s Boy Scouts of America fundraiser, performed on the Gibson stage at the Sundance Film Festival and has done shows and house concerts & arts festivals throughout the United States including The Mint, Genghis Cohen & Room 5 in Los Angeles. She has also had appearances on the morning talk show "Good Things Utah" and Park City TV. In 2008 she moved to Los Angeles where she had the opportunity to sing in a backing choir for Rayne Davies & The Kinks.
In 2010 health issues caused Annelise to pivot again and press pause on her music career to take care of herself. She did one last tour with fellow songwriter Jenn Franklin up the California Coast before taking a longer break from her music than planned. In the interim she became a Certified Singing Success/Brett Manning Associate vocal coach and has been teaching voice and songwriting for over 12 years.
Annelise’s deep passion for songwriting, recording and the creative process combined with her love of teaching inspired her to create a songwriting accountably group called FiftySongs where participants write a song every week for a year while receiving education and feedback from guest instructors some of which are Grammy nominated Educators. To prove it could be done she wrote a song every week along side her 2022 participants. All the the songs for her current album were born out of FiftySongs. In addition to her own album many of her participants are recording their music and by the end of 2024 over 30 songs will be released by FiftySongs participants. The FiftySongs Spotify playlist showcases these artists.
Annelise resides in California with her husband and two beautiful children. She enjoys art, photography, family bike rides, traveling, health and fitness and working hard toward big audacious goals!