Join the Forbes Center in partnership with WMRA radio for an exciting new showcase celebrating five female singer-songwriters from the Shenandoah Valley! Experience a heartfelt evening hosted by Tina Owens from WMRA’s The Acoustic Café about the personal journeys singer-songwriters embark on when creating new works. Each sensational songstress will perform several original songs and share the personal stories behind their creation. The Forbes Center plans to highlight a new group of talented singer-songwriters each season. This inaugural event is also sponsored by Cross Keys Studio in Port Republic, Virginia. Don’t miss it!

Born and raised in Front Royal, Virginia, Gina Furtado is known for her work as the banjo player for Chris Jones & The Night Drivers; she made her international debut with the group shortly after joining in 2016. Furtado’s tween-year East Coast tours with her siblings led to Bluegrass Today praising her for being “absurdly talented.” She currently tours with her band, the Gina Furtado Project.

Erin Lunsford is an award-winning singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist originally from Fincastle, Virginia. She is the frontwoman of the Richmond, Virginia-based funk/soul band Erin & The Wildfire and has opened solo for Bruce Hornsby, Darrell Scott, and more. Lunsford was selected as a top NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert in 2018 and 2019, and was included in “FloydFest 2019: 10 Best Things We Saw” by Rolling Stone Country.

Molly Murphy, who studied music at JMU, plays guitar, sings, writes and arranges music. She began playing with the Charlottesville, Virginia-based band The Bourbon Specials in 2005. A few years later, Murphy and her friends formed The Judy Chops, which performs regionally as well as up and down the East Coast. Murphy also performs in the duo ensemble The Marvelous Murphy Sisters with her sister Sally, and owns Queen City Music Studios in Staunton, Virginia, a school of music for learning by ear.

Ebony Nicole is an East Coast singer-songwriter who lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She plays keyboard and acoustic guitar. Nicole’s single High and Dry was awarded a special mention in the Singer-Songwriter category of the UK Songwriting Content 2019. Her four-track EP project is available for download at www.reverbnation.com/ebonynicole.

Suz Slezak, who grew up playing the fiddle and singing rounds, is a pioneering folk musician who performs solo and as a duo with husband David Wax in the Charlottesville, Virginia-based “Mexo-Americana” band David Wax Museum. The band’s release of Line of Light in August 2019 resulted in a national television debut on CBS This Morning: Saturday and three features on NPR’s World Cafe. Their ballad “Big Sur” debuted during the marriage scene on Netflix’s Firefly Lane in 2021.