Minna's Bio

Minna Bromberg is a singer, songwriter, scholar, sailor, and activist who brings striking passion and energy to every part of her world. Whether enchanting audiences with her amazing voice, reaching listeners with the unusual intensity of her extraordinary songwriting, or challenging college students to rethink the way they see the world, Minna simply shines.

Minna released her first album of original songs, Wherever I've Come From, Wherever I Go, in 1995 when she was 22 years old. Her second independent release, The World Is Ready, came out in 1999 on Minna's Bone in Her Teeth label. The World Is Ready was produced by Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and features both originals as well as covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, and The Barenaked Ladies. In its review of The World Is Ready, The Victory Review called Minna "a Joni Mitchell for the new millennium," and said, "she strikes with a sweet venom."

Minna grew up in on Eastern Long Island, and her rich, powerful vocals and sharp songwriting are marked indelibly with the pull of the ocean and the tang of sea air. Of a concert at Simon's Rock College, Minna's alma mater, one event organizer wrote: "Across the valley, over the pond, up the hill, her voice carried, filled the trees with rhythm and a beauty rare and utterly consuming."

Minna worked for several years for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an environmental organization founded by Pete Seeger in 1966. With the mission of using advocacy, education, and celebration to protect and restore the Hudson River, Clearwater is best known in the music world for its yearly festival, The Great Hudson River Revival. Minna performed at Revival in 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2001.

She has sung at riverfront festivals and coffeehouses throughout the Hudson Valley from the Eighth Step in Albany to the Indoor Folk Festival at Symphony Space in Manhattan. She's played for passengers of all ages aboard Clearwater -the organization's 106' sloop-and sailed as a shipboard musician on schooners out of Mystic, Connecticut and Maine's Bar Harbor and Boothbay Harbor.

Since moving to Chicago in 1997, Minna has played the coffeehouse circuit, festivals, and protests. She has appeared at the None of the Above Coffeehouse and with Dave Martin at the Two Way Street Coffee House. She plays regularly at No Exit Café and the Heartland Café. Her voice has been heard everywhere from folk shows on radio stations WNUR, WDCB, and WZRD to anti-war protests in the Loop. She has played at First Night and Earth Day festivals and the Fox Valley Folk Festival.

In addition to her appearances in Chicago, Minna has performed in Madison, Ann Arbor, Toronto (at the Free Times Café), Sag Harbor, East Hampton (at the Stephen Talkhouse), Boston, and Western Massachusetts. Her travels have also taken her to the West Coast where she won "Best Performance" in her first appearance at the Portland Songwriters Association's showcase in 1997.

Minna is an active member of the People's Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle PMN, a network of musicians and activists using music to work for social change. Minna was instrumental in organizing PMN's Annual Winter Gathering in Chicago in January 1999, entitled "Celebrating Our Diversity and Continuing the Struggle." The weekend kicked off with a standing room only concert at the People's Church in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood that included performances by Pete Seeger, Charlie King, Ella Jenkins, and Voices. Minna's performance of her own song "What Price Liberty?" with help from fellow PMN member Dave Martin got the entire audience of 1600 singing along.

Minna's wide range of interests has insured that she has taken her music slightly off folk music's well-beaten path. A sociologist by training, Minna has carved a unique role for herself as a singing sociologist : acting as a visiting lecturer using music to illustrate, educate, and inspire. In January 2001, Minna started Aunt Minna's Lullaby Line, which provides a free 24-hour lullaby service to one and all.

Minna has shared the stage with Pete Seeger, Charlie King, Ella Jenkins, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, Magpie, and Pat Humphries. "Minna was the Clearwater's best singer up and down the Hudson," said Pete Seeger. "Now she's Clearwater's loss but the world's gain; sing on, Minna, bind this world together!"

Discography

Compilations and Guest Appearances