Philanthropy Technology & The Performing Arts

Wesla Whitfield and Mike Greensil

Rarely do two brilliant, shining stars come together and stay together the way these two uniquely gifted artists have, and it’s been a win win situation for planet Earth and her inhabitants. Mike studied Piano in England, and Wesla started singing at home in Santa Maria, California around the same time but many thousands of miles apart. Somewhere, destiny intervened and brought Wesla and Mike to San Francisco where they met and soon started collaborating on music each loved and wanted to perform.

Possessing a deep love for that rich storehouse of musical treasures often identified as The Great America Popular Songbook, Wesla has been developing her skills and learning her demanding craft for a number of years. It’s been ever since she "knew at age two-and-a-half that I would grow up to be a singer." Her sound and approach would seem to place her somewhere in the intriguing area that borders on both jazz and that aspect of pop music which draws its material largely from the great standards and neglected gems of such as Cole Porter and Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hart.
She discovered her mother’s extensive sheet music collection at an early age, "and used it to sight-read." Serious radio and record listening provided some important influences including Rosemary Clooney, the Hi-Los, Peggy Lee, Frankie Laine and Dean Martin. Among her earliest professional experiences was a mid-70s stint with the San Francisco Opera as a salaried chorister. Wesla and her husband Mike Greensill collaborate and perform annually in some of the most distinguished and highly esteemed nightclubs and music venues in the world including the Cinegrill, The Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room, Arci’s Place, Blues Alley, Jazz Alley, Pizza on the Park and for two months each winter in San Francisco’s own Plush Room. Each is a major talent and together they interpret and perform some of the greatest popular music ever composed in a style and with substance seldom encountered. They’ve worked with major symphonies, orchestras, bands and solo performers from Marian McPartland to Joe Wilder. Together they brought down the house in their Carnegie Hall debut participating in the Tribute to Frank Sinatra. They’ve since appeared in tributes to Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland and been invited to perform at The White House. They work together and Greensill does solo work while his wife is taking time ‘to smell the roses.’ Both support dozens of worthy causes in benefit work around the country and are always on the giving side of the challenges facing each of us. Whitfield and Greensill have created fifteen album/CD’s with the fifteenth due for release soon.

www.weslawhitfield.com