cecille elliott

Cecille began singing from a young age. Her first solo voice opportunities came through cantoring and singing in elementary/middle school choir and theater productions. She began her pop/rock singing journey in school talent shows around the same time, learning to sing and play songs on the piano and guitar, and it was during her high school's talent show performances where she fell in love with singing live and pop performance. Most of her music time was spent pursuing strings, but she found a way to continue exploring her interest in voice through her high school's musical theater program.
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She began at Western Michigan University as a non-major, taking a break from her strings training. On a chance audition, she joined one of the university's jazz choirs and found she decided to make voice her primary focus. She was accepted into the voice studies program where she was a member of the school's jazz and classical choruses, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in 2011. She spent three years with the internationally acclaimed vocal jazz ensemble Gold Company. During her final year with the group, she won two DownBeat Student Awards as a member of both Gold Company and the Gold Company Sextet. She performed in venues across the country including Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, and at the National Inventors Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. In 2009, Cecille performed on The Oprah Winfrey Show as a backup vocalist for Jake Zyrus and David Foster.  In 2010 she took part in a performance with Gold Company at Kalamazoo Central High School's graduation ceremony of which President Barack Obama was the guest speaker.
 
Cecille currently lives in Portland, Oregon where she freelances around town. She is a rostered vocalist with Resonance Ensemble and has appeared as a soloist on several Resonance performances since she began, styles ranging from classical to pop and contemporary. Along with having been commissioned by Resonance, she was a featured artist during the 2024-2025 season for Resonance's "Choir Grrrl".​​
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In the summer of 2024, Cecille joined Lyyra, a 6-voice women's vocal ensemble from the Voces8 Foundation, as the lowest alto of the group. Together they've toured the United States and Europe bringing performances and workshops of many genres of choral music to audiences around the world. Lyyra is signed with Warner Classics. Lyyra's goal, beyond performing world class multi-genre music at the highest level, is to become one of the first full-time choral groups available for upper voices in the United States.