San Michele

About San Michele

Sandra Michele Joseph, better known as San Michele, has blessed the world's music scene with her smooth, warm voice for more than two decades.

Performing Jazz, Latin and Soul in popular venues throughout Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast as well as in her native Sri Lanka, she shares with her fans her passionate love of all things musical, especially her innate love of Jazz.

Using her beautiful voice, San Michele exposes the intricate relationship between melody and rhythm, taking listeners on a delightful exploration of the sounds and rhythms of Jazz. She loves the rhythmical aspects of the song, as she also plays shakers, tambourine, congas and bongos.

Her stunning improvisations give her the freedom to soar like a bird or swim to the depths of the ocean at any given moment in a song. Her singing brings out the free-flying harmonies of each tune, as she uses syncopated rhythm percussively to merge with the bass and drum – and often uses her voice as an instrument in itself.

Yet San Michele's greatest gift may be her ability to convey the story – the emotion – within the song. She pounces upon her songs, eager to bring forth their message, regardless of how much raw emotion she must employ and endure.

With her versatile, vivacious and varied style, her song list overflows with favourite songs that she covers from artists and groups that are legends in Soul, R&B, Jazz, and the Blues, Latin, Reggae, Pop and Rock, Swing, and Ballads. They run the gamut: Al Jarreau; Sarah Vaughan; Ella Fitzgerald; Cassandra Wilson; Mel Torme; Ray Charles; George Benson; James Taylor; Jim Croce; the Beatles; Eric Clapton; Sting; Earth, Wind and Fire; Bob Marley; Stevie Wonder; Roberta Flack; and Bill Withers, to name a few.

She has sung backup for the R&B band The Kitchenettes, a funk band called Mr. Briefcase, and the soul/funk/jazz band Small Talk, in addition to being the lead singer of the jazz band De Já as well as her own jazz band, the San Michele Quintet, which enjoyed great success and popularity with a loyal following of jazz-loving fans.

San Michele has performed with a host of the very best musicians of Australia's vibrant jazz music scene as well as outstanding Sri Lankan musicians.

In addition, her duo performance with Valentino, a brilliant flamenco guitarist, was a masterful flamenco-jazz fusion of Spanish and English songs called Aire, featuring San Michele's enchanting voice blending beautifully with the flamenco guitar.

In Australia, she has performed in many venues in the vibrant Jazz music scene of Melbourne as well as the Sunshine Coast, including Dizzys, Manchester Lane, Limerick Arms Hotel, Matthew Flinders Hotel, Cherry Hill Hotel, Intrepid Fox Tavern, The Flower Hotel, The Inkerman Hotel, The Stage, Wayside Inn Hotel, Trappers Bar, The Rose Hotel, the National Art Gallery of Victoria, and many private functions.

In recent years, she has also performed at numerous venues in Sri Lanka, including the Hilton Hotel, Taj Hotel, Mount Lavinia Hotel, Ananthara Hotel, Tangalle and Colombo Courtyard, as well as exclusive gigs at the Foreign Ministers Residence, Swimming Club, Rowing Club, and the hip Barefoot Cafe. She has also performed regularly at Colombo’s iconic monthly Jazz Unlimited.

San Michele first began singing formally at the age of 24, comparatively late to start, but San Michele believes it is never too late to pursue one's passion. She began her career in Australia singing with her cousin in a band called 'The Kitchenettes' because they sang a lot in the kitchen and would take what they were doing onto the stage. She learned much about performing from that early period with the R&B band.

Since that time, her career has blossomed, and she has learned, studied and improved her craft not only through practice and performance but also through diligent training with music masters, including William Bates Academy of Acting & Voice Production (Melbourne and South Yarra), Creenagh Dalton (Box Hill), the Jazz Vocal Workshop with Bob Sedergreen (Dizzys, Richmond), Diana Clark (Richmond), Harry Mullany (Malvern), Cosimo Ciccone at the Victorian Institute of Speech Level Singing (Footscray), Glenda Walsh (Malvern), Michelle Nicole (Brunswick), and Sello Molefi (The Lion King, Dance Through Me, Elephant Tales; Newport).

San Michele's zest for music comes out of a deep, personal appreciation for the importance of music in her life. Music has given her strength, confidence...a voice. It has helped heal her in her darkest times.

Born in Sri Lanka, she has lived in Australia since she was 9. Growing up as an only child, she would have to overcome an almost crippling shyness and nervousness into adulthood. Early on, she faced a challenging battle, making sense of the differing cultural perspectives she was receiving as a child – her parents’ traditional and conservative Sri Lankan perspectives versus the new perspectives that came from settling in a new country, Australia, where a more open and freer way of thinking ultimately offered her salvation, literally music to her ears.

She would later work for the Royal Australian Air Force, and for many years she worked a 9-to-5 office job... until she underwent her first brain aneurysm operation in 2003. She would have two in her lifetime.

For San Michele, the music she has heard and the music she creates has been the healing medium that has allowed her to get through anything. It has also given her a voice – a creative expression. Having had to pull herself up from the depths of despair at times in order just to breathe, and having to find ways of believing in herself when at times she didn't receive the support she needed from those she loved, San Michele used music to overcome every adversity.

She also became a masterful jazz improvisationist – which at first she was terrified to do, being so fearful of giving of her internal self. Slowly she gained the ability to "let the 'me' out – the 'me' that had remained hidden for so much of my life."

With her music and her voice, San Michele is today able to powerfully express herself, and she devotes herself to bringing to all people the joy and release that music has given her. For her, music is a life lesson and a skills journey – a wonderful healing tool. As an artist and entertainer, she is on a quest to spread music's healing vibrations to the world.

Ultimately, San Michele uses her exquisite gift of singing and musicianship to remind everyone that "life isn’t just about getting up, eating breakfast, going to work or school, eating dinner and sleeping – rather it is about freeing ourselves up to experience emotions that we have been keeping locked up inside ourselves for so long." So she shares her music to bring forth and unleash the most healing emotion of all: joyfulness!