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Before her feet could even reach the pedals, Kimberly Raadt was playing the piano. Her father taught her to read music when she was four years old, and she also learned to play and sing by ear, picking out tunes from the radio much like her mother had always done. Over the years Kim spent countless hours at the piano, practicing and composing. At seventeen, she became lead singer and piano player of her
first band.
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For over sixteen years Kim performed in bands ranging in size from duos to
16-piece swing bands, and in genres including rock, folk, country, jazz,
blues, r&b, funk, fusion, hip hop, Calypso, and Carolina beach music.
She has performed on the same bill with notables including Billy Joe
Royal,
Beth Nielsen Chapman, and the original Cheap
Trick, and her band mates have included former members of Gladys Knight's
band, P-Funk,
and The Drifters.
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In 1996 Kim took a break from performing, but she continued writing and adding to her catalog of original music. In January 2000 she released the
entirely self-produced CD, "dreams &
memories", a collection of short songs she wrote between 1979 and 1994, reflecting her folk rock and jazz roots.
She performed all of the vocals, programmed the drums, and played all the other parts, using a Roland U20 keyboard and MC50 Micro Composer. In March 2002 Kim returned to the stage, playing her own music, and solo, for the first time. She has a backlog of new material to be included on a project slated for the near future.
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Kim studied voice at the
University of Alabama, and music theory and jazz at Auburn
University, where
she earned a Bachelor of Music: Jazz Studies degree in 1989. Kim also earned a Master
of Business Administration degree from Auburn
University at Montgomery in 1996.
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A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Kim
has also resided in Tuscaloosa, Auburn, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Atlanta, Georgia area has been her home since 1996.
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