It has been said that music has the power to influence a generation. For Washington, D.C. based singer/songwriter Tamara Wellons, those words are more than a cultural adage, they are her life’s mission.

At the core of Tamara Wellons is the desire to educate. After several years of teaching elementary school aged children, she has not lost her passion for helping children discover their inner voice and the world around them through music.

Growing up in her hometown Ivor, Virginia, Tamara was known as the “little girl with the big voice.” Singing was only natural for the granddaughter of the legendary gospel group, The Pritchett Sisters. Tamara grew up on what she refers to as “folk music”, knee slapping, hand clapping and foot stomping syncopated rhythms, and unbridled harmonic chants, reminiscent of ancestral celebration.

While the church was most certainly the incubator for Tamara’s talent, it was her collegiate experience that sharpened and diversified her musicality. In 1995, Tamara left Ivor, Virginia to attend Bowie State University. There, while studying early childhood development, she also immersed herself in the sounds of eclectic jazz and soul music. She joined the Bowie State Jazz Ensemble and began booking live performances around the Washington D.C. area. Her commanding vocals and hypnotic blend of folk, soul, jazz and house varieties would later garner performances at some the hottest venues, including the prestigious Jazz Café in London.