Lilli Lewis grew up on a dirt road outside of Athens, Georgia, where she played in her father's garden and developed a passion for classical piano. By the early age of 3, Lilli was giving frequent silent "air" piano performances (until the family acquired a piano) and composing songs that had to be transcribed by her mother's hand. Largely self-taught, she became an accomplished student of classical piano and vocal performance but found herself just as enthralled by her hometown's famous musical anti-elite. She credits their independent spirit for placing her on the path to finding her own voice. "Sleepers Wake", Lewis' third album, is a journey of beauty and pain, of longing and love, of inescapable truths and infinite possibilities. In these six songs, Lewis brings the listener deeper than ever before in a quest for home, justice and love, and finds a path to them all in her own heart. Lewis' "innovative, soulful" music defies conventional genre categories. Those who try to capture her sound have conjured names like Alice Coltrane and Cassandra Wilson, but perhaps the most accurate description was coined by poetess Kemi Bennings, who described her as an "operatic, r and b, folk songbird." Lewis herself maintains her only goal is "to make music that makes sense to me." She does so with an elegant poise, her versatile voice showing itself in one moment a pure and longing stratospheric pianissimo, the next a low and earthy rumble, dancing across her range with arresting beauty and ease. A two-time 1st place winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) vocal competition, Lewis actively performs in every idiom including classical, jazz, folk, gospel and soul. Lewis has recorded with Laszlo Gardony, John Lockwood, Mark Shilansky, Jerome Duepree & Blake Newman. Bands have included Coriander, The Reverend and ETQ (www.elevatethequest.com) and in 2001 she composed the score for the award-winning documentary "NINE."