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That’s starting to change, as word — and video — gets around about the 27-year-old New London resident who alternately croons and belts standards for Upper Valley jazz ensembles during nights off from her day job as a veterinary technician’s assistant. On Saturday, for example, she’ll co-headline BarnArts’ annual Holiday Cabaret at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret.
“I was just so thrilled that Bob Merrill would think of me,” Crummer said last week of the cabaret’s music director and piano accompanist. “When he called to ask me if I could do it I just said, ‘Of course! Put my name down!’ ”
Crummer’s name, and voice, sprang to mind for Merrill almost as soon as a scheduling conflict compelled Brooklyn, N.Y., performer Emma Rose Brooks to cancel.
“The first time I saw and heard Grace was back in June, when I was playing with Peter Concilio and his Speakeasy Prohibition Band at Windsor Station,” Merrill recalled this week. “She came in and sat in with us. Usually when a vocalist sits in, I don’t have a lot of expectations, but with Grace I was very pleasantly surprised.
“And every time I’ve heard her since, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.”
Crummer impressed saxophonist Michael Parker enough for him to invite her back for impromptu performances at his recent First Tuesday Jazz shows at Carpenter & Main in Norwich.
“She can do slow and fast, swing and bossa nova,” Parker wrote during an exchange of emails. “She sounds great, and has a wonderful voice.”
Growing up Grace Waddoups in Worcestershire, England, she sang within her folk-oriented family but figured that her future as a public performer in music, whether vocational or avocational, belonged first to the piano, and later to the flute.
And after meeting husband-to-be Brandon Crummer during a visit to the Sunapee-Kearsarge region, then moving there in 2011, she set music aside to focus on training as a veterinary technician’s assistant, and soon found work at a clinic in Henniker, N.H.
Finally, while attending the InterPlay Jazz Camp in Woodstock in 2018, Crummer found her voice.
“I just sang at these gatherings, and realized how much I loved to sing,” she said. “It just emerged circumstantially that I found it through jazz.”
Concilio, who plays and teaches bass for InterPlay, soon was inviting Crummer to sing with the bands he brings to First Friday jazz shows at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland, as well as with the Speakeasy band. Along the way came appearances on the downtown mall in Lebanon for jazz guitarist Bill Rosen’s series of pop-up concerts last summer, at saxophonist Fred Haas’ monthly shows at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover with Rosen and organist Norm Yanofsky and, most recently, in November as a headliner at the Anonymous Coffeehouse in Lebanon.
“She draws her audience to her and captures them with a special magic,” Concilio said on Monday. “She lifts their spirits with her beauty and innocence, and with the sheer joy at having been asked to sing.”
On Saturday, Crummer will join Gabrielle Confer in singing yuletide pop and jazz classics, to the accompaniment of Merrill, Concilio, guitarist Steve Stuntz, flutist Kathleen Dolan and drummer Mark van Gulden.
And going into the holidays, Grace Crummer will be counting her blessings, among them a gig at the Corinth Coffeehouse in March, for which the organizer has recruited a team of instrumentalists “sort of built around me,” she said.
“I was not expecting things to go this way at all.”
On the theme of “Let It Snow,” the BarnArts Center for the Arts hosts its annual Holiday Cabaret on Saturday night at 7:30, in the ArtisTree Community Arts Center’s Hayloft space in South Pomfret. For tickets ($25) and more information, visit barnarts.org or email info@barnarts.org or call 802-234-1645.
Stand-up comedian Jason Lorber performs an adults-only adaptation of humorist David Sedaris’ memoir The Santaland Diaries on Friday night at 7:30, in the Upper Gallery of Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph. Admission $25.
■Opera North stages All is Calm, a re-imagining of a Christmas Day truce between British and German soldiers during World War I, on Saturday night at 5 and on Sunday afternoon at 2, at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction. For tickets ($50) and more information, visit operanorth.org or call 603-448-4141.
■Americana musician Bow Thayer and the roots band Turnip Truck pay tribute to the late guitar-maker Doug Chase on Saturday night from 5 to 9, at First Branch Coffee in South Royalton. Admission is by donation to a fund for Chase’s family.
■Classical guitarist Colin McAllister performs his multi-media recital, The Library at Night, on Saturday night at 7 at the United Church of Strafford. The program includes compositions of Hector Villa-Lobos, Fernando Sor and Strafford resident Stuart Saunders Smith. Admission by donation to Strafford’s Morrill Memorial & Harris Library.
■Cellist Eugene Friesen and vocalist Elizabeth Rogers share Celtic-flavored songs of the winter solstice from their album, Down in Yon Forest, on Saturday night at 7:30 at the North Universalist Chapel. Admission $15.
■The Cape Breton quartet Coig plays “A Celtic Holiday Concert” on Saturday night at 8, in Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre. For tickets ($20 to $45) and more information about this and other Woodstock Wassail events, visit pentanglearts.org or call 802-457-3981.
The Sound of Music, performances through Jan. 5 at Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. Tickets $17.75 to $57.75.
Taking Steps, performances of Shaker Bridge Theatre production of Alan Ayckbourn play from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon, at Whitney Hall in Enfield. Comedy runs through Dec. 22. Tickets $16 to $35.
■Christmas puppet show, Sunday afternoon at 3 at Beaver Meadow Chapel in Norwich. Admission by donation.
Pine Hill Singers, classical, contemporary, Broadway, pop, patriotic and world music, Friday night at 7 at Court Street Arts’ Alumni Hall in Haverhill. Admission by donation.
■The Country Jamboree, “A Nashville Christmas,” Friday night at 7:30 at Claremont Opera House. Admission $25.
■Chris von Staats Band, two sets of piano-centered, yuletide music, Friday night at 8 at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover. Seasonal classics in jazz or funk to start, then full soundtrack of Vince Guaraldi compositions for A Charlie Brown Christmas.
■Singer-songwriter Joshua Hall, Saturday night at 7 at Unitarian Universalist Church in Springfield, Vt. Free.
■ Bel Canto Chamber Singers, “Make We Joy” holiday concerts 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Admission $10 to $15.
■The Panhandlers steel-drum band and Seven Stars Recorder Ensemble, holiday concert, Tuesday night at 6:30 at Seven Stars Arts Center. Free; reservations advised.
■Counterpoint chorus and brass quintet from Vermont Symphony Orchestra, concert of holiday music, Wednesday night at 7:30 at Grange Theatre in South Pomfret. Admission $30.
■Folk singer-songwriters Harvey Reid and Joyce Andersen, annual holiday concerts Wednesday night at Flying Goose Brew Pub & Grill in New London. Admission $25; reservations required.
City Center Ballet, performances of Clara’s Dream at Lebanon Opera House, Saturday afternoon at 1, Saturday night at 7, Sunday afternoon at 2:30. For tickets ($10 to $38) and more information, visit citycenterballet.org.
Mad Hazard Band, jazz, bossa nova and blues, Thursday night at 5:30 at the Quechee Club’s Davidson’s Restaurant.
■Singer-songwriter Jason Cann, Thursday night from 6 to 9 at Harpoon Brewery in Windsor.
■Singer-songwriter Chris Comeau, roots/country, Thursday night at 6 at Peyton Place restaurant in Orford; Michael Hahn Duo, country, Friday night at 6.
■The Gully Billies, Americana, 7 p.m. Thursday at Windsor Station; The Aardvark, roots-rock, 7 p.m. Friday; The Wheelers, rock, 9:30 p.m. Saturday; Bow Thayer, Americana, 6 p.m. Tuesday.
■Jack in the Pulpit, soul, blues and rock, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners.
■Jason Cann Band, rock, Friday night at 8 at Taverne on the Square in Claremont.
■That One-Eyed Kid, folk/pop, Friday night at 8 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; Rich Thomas and Logan Flewelling, Saturday night at 8.
■Singer-songwriter Jim Hollis, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover; singer-guitarist Wayne Canney, blues and R&B, Saturday night at 9.
■The Conniption Fits, rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon; Ted Mortimer and the Contraband, danceable rock and soul, Saturday night at 9.
■Singer-guitarist Wayne Canney, blues and R&B, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Newport.
■Singer-songwriter Alison “AliT” Turner, Sunday afternoon at 2 at SILO Distillery in Windsor.
■Singer-songwriter Jim Yeager, Monday night at 6:30 at 506 on the River in Woodstock.
■Saxophonist Michael Parker and guitarist Norm Wolfe, jazz, Wednesday night at 5:30 at Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm.
Fiddler Jakob Breitbach hosts jam sessions at two venues in White River Junction over the coming week: jazz on Thursday night at 6 at Hotel Coolidge’s Cafe Renee; and roots on Tuesday night at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill.
■Alec Currier’s weekly open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, 8 p.m. Thursday.
■Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse’s monthly open mic, Friday night at 7 at Lake Sunapee United Methodist Church in Sunapee Harbor. Admission by donation.
■Monthly all-comers jam for folk and traditional musicians, Sunday afternoon at 4 at Seven Stars Arts Center in Sharon. Free.
■Tom Masterson’s open mic, Tuesday nights at 7 at Colatina Exit in Bradford, Vt.
■Jim Yeager’s open mic, Tuesday night at 8 at Public House Pub in Quechee.
■Peter Meijer’s open mic, Wednesday nights at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com or 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.