Vocalist Portrait Session
Vocalist NYC Portrait Session
Shot and written by Angela Cappetta
"Zoé has a voice that would make a velvet blazer jealous." Miami.com Listen to Angela Cappetta's podcast interview with Zoe here.
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When I got to work with Zoe Fromer it was thrilling. I got to hear her sing and learned what an Omnichord is! “It is an electric autoharp. They’re from the 70’s. I use it all the time.” Furthermore, she is an accomplished pianist. Her new single dropped! You can find it here.
As a singer, why are new portrait sessions important?
It is always important to have the most accurate representation of yourself as an artist. Not only do I change my hair color once a year, but the things I write about seem to change seasonally as well. There is something ethereal that can be captured in a portrait: I think it is important to bring this to one’s audience. I have all these photos of myself from Miami but I’m not that person anymore. New portraits mirror the new fact of who I am.
How did you discover that you love the Omnichord?
I have always been attracted to music with an analog sound. The Kills and The Strokes, for example. There is also a lot of bleepy bloopy music in Adventure Time that I love. When I acquired my piano from a college friend, he offered to throw in his Omnicord which he wasn’t using. And the rest is history. I love it because it is a band in a box. Why I brought it for my shoot is because I have been using it a lot lately in songwriting and covers. And I feel like it is a physical representation of my current sound.
Tell us about your training.
So, I was singing in a high chair. Mom has a video of me in the tub singing Sweet Sweet Nightingale aged 2. I couldn’t pronounce it so nightingale became my-in-tale. In middle and upper school I was in all the choirs and musical theatre productions. Just because I loved to sing. Not necessarily because of the format.
Any chance to sing, I took. Singing in bookstores, talent shows, weird Florida venues. In Upper School, The jazz band director came into the choir room. He asked if there were any takers to sing with the school’s big band. Naturally, the first song we sang was Smack Dab in the Middle. Following that was Old Black Magic. I became enamored with not only being the center of attention but discovering my gift. And being part of a functioning, communicative unit of musicians. I started taking jazz gigs and learned the repertoire.
I earned a scholarship at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. We studied technique, history and performance. Jazz theory, jazz piano as well.
Some of the cool things I did during school. To enumerate:
- I was the vocal director for the school salsa orchestra, Downbeat award-winning at that;
- I sang two songs from “The Hunger Games” composed, arranged, and conducted by James Newton Howard in front of an orchestra while the movie played behind me.
- I fronted “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys for the New World Symphony MIXTAPE event. Listening to Pet Sounds on repeat ignited my love of songwriting.
What are you doing now and how will your new Vocalist NYC Portrait Session help you?
Right now, I am recording my first E.P. of my original songs. It is a spooky but highly danceable set of songs. I am playing keyboards and Omnicord on several songs. I am working with two producers. The plan is to promote this effort using the photographs Angela Cappetta shot of me. Mostly for social media. Also for identity on places like Band Camp and SoundCloud. I want to have a good foundation for when I release the E.P. The pictures will help me achieve that.
Vocalist NYC Portrait Session by Angela Cappetta
