Hilary Gardner
“No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.” – E.B. White
Hilary Gardner is a singer and writer living in Brooklyn. Her first gigs were in Wasilla, Alaska, where she sang Patsy Cline tunes in dive bars. Classical voice study helped build her musical foundation, but equally formative was the time she spent singing along with records by Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Joni Mitchell, and Tom Waits.
She was indeed willing to be lucky when she moved to New York, and the city has been very generous to her. Since arriving in 2003, she’s sung with orchestras, big bands, small bands, a vocal jazz quartet, and a country band. In 2010, Hilary was the female vocalist (and Frank Sinatra’s duet partner) in Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away.
Hilary performs and tours with “Duchess”, a vocal trio in the great tradition of the Boswell Sisters. Among her more eclectic gigs are assorted commercial jingles, a cameo on a Moby record, and performing the national anthem at CitiField for the New York Mets.
Her debut album, “The Great City”, was released by Anzic Records in 2014. Part love letter, part lament, the record celebrates the electricity, dynamism, and sense of possibility that permeate life in the Big Apple. When she’s not performing or rehearsing music, she’s often writing on her blog, Ad Alta Voce, about creativity, food, or this city she loves so much.