Born in Fredonia, New York, Calabria Foti is an acclaimed jazz vocalist and violinist. Raised in family of musicians and music educators, she began playing guitar in church at the age of 9. By the time she was 12, she was also studying electric bass and violin while singing jazz standards in her parents’ jazz band. Early in her life, she was exposed to many styles of music but was drawn to movie musicals and songs from the ‘Great American Songbook.’ Her musical career as a classical violinist began when she became the Associate Concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra when she was 20. Her dual career as a violinist and vocalist led her to Los Angeles, California, where she worked with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr., and many others. As a vocalist, she released her first album, When a Woman Loves a Man, in 1999. Under her married name of Calabria McChesney, she joined string quartet The What Four and recorded several tribute albums to artists such as Jewel, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, and others. She also played violin on hundreds of film and TV soundtracks plus played on sessions by Paul McCartney, Barbra Streisand, Daft Punk, David Foster, Big Daddy, and more. In 2007, she returned to singing with the acclaimed album A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening. In 2013, she recorded “Let’s Fall in Love” with Seth McFarlane, which earned her a Grammy Award nomination. Continuing with her singing career, she released the album In the Still of the Night (2017) to great acclaim and followed that a year later with the reissue of her debut album When a Woman Loves a Man. Calabria Foti issued the critically adored album, Prelude to a Kiss, in 2019. She then collaborated with her husband Bob McChesney on the holiday album Together For Christmas (2022), which featured classic holiday music as well as new self-penned songs including “All I Wanna Do For Christmas.”
