Mineola High School graduate Michelle Ferreira has launched her professional musical career with the independent release of her first album entitled, “Stories Left Unsaid.”
“I feel good it’s done,” Ferreira said. “I think it was a really good start to my career.”
Ferreira’s debut effort was nine months in the making. She started working on it in a Manhattan studio last January to record 10 tracks with the help of a fellow Mineola alumnus, Chris Wallitsch, who also co-wrote some of the songs with her. She recorded the instrumental tracks with Wallitsch and later in May recorded vocal tracks at The Cutting Room, a recording studio in Manhattan.
Ferreira worked with Wallitsch to complete production work on the album last month.
The music on her recording, “Stories Left Unsaid,” includes pop ballads and tunes delivered in a rock style.
Ferreira, who played leading roles in high school musicals, delivers the tunes with a strong, emotive mezzo-soprano voice. The recording can be purchased – and sampled – at www.bandcamp.com or on the MusicStore on her facebook page, www.facebook.com/michelleferreiramusic.
“Stranger, stranger, spill your secrets/We’ve got our lives with stories left unsaid,” she sings in the refrain of the title song. It’s based on her experiences riding the New York City subways and wondering about the lives of the strangers on those trains.
In her senior year at Mineola, Ferreira attended the BOCES Long Island High School of the Performing arts. Earlier this year, Ferreira recently was graduated from Pace University with a major in acting, but the seed for the 21-year-old songstress’s musical career was planted long before that.
Her parents started giving her voice lessons when she was eight years old.
Her first performed occurred in second grade, when her older sister nudged her into performing in a talent show. She sang “I Got Rhythm,” and remembers being nearly overcome with emotion at the audience broke into applause. In third grade, she donned a yellow wig, glitzy eyelashes and clogs and belted out versions of “I Will Survive.”
She later reprised her performance of “I Will Survive” when she traveled to Portugal at age eight or nine and sang – at her parents’ urging – in front of an audience of 1,000 people.
But her most recent performance was the most memorable one she said she’s experienced thus far. She performed at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village last week with her band, featuring Mike Ceglio on electric guitar, Greg Odette on guitar, Jason Hernandez on bass and Chris Wallitsch on drums.
Ferreira said it was an eventful night because her family and friends, including friends from her school days in Mineola, were on hand to hear her perform at the legendary New York night spot.
“It was nice to have my family all in one room,” she said.
Her next live performance will be at Ollie’s Point in Amityville on Oct. 14. And she’s already writing songs for her next album.
