Bio: A few short years ago, Cheryl B. Engelhardt, armed with her biology degree from Cornell University, got a cool government job that found her SCUBA diving with research teams. But the minute she had an opportunity to compose music, the lifelong pianist—who was playing Beethoven at age three and began composing her own material at five—took off the gear and jumped into competitive waters of the music industry, first as a composer for websites, then as a jingle writer and music supervisor for Bigfoote Music. She then took the ultimate plunge as a full-time DIY indie singer-songwriter, a creative leap of faith that has made her one of NYC’s fastest rising stars of 2007. Just as the title of her acclaimed new CD implies, for Engelhardt, life is about risktaking, living and making music in the present, and most of all, Craving The Second.

The versatile, Harlem based artist’s mix of heartfelt and hard-hitting piano driven songs and dynamic ambition has led her to become a popular presence in the indie scene.