Healing Through Music

CD Helps Defray Young Jazz Singer’s Medical Costs

By Howard Rothman, 12-12-05

Erienne Romaine is a Denver 14-year-old with a terrific voice for jazz. The daughter of drummer Paul Romaine, she has been performing in local venues like the legendary El Chapultepec since she was 3 and was rehearsing for her first wedding performance last summer when she suffered a seizure and collapsed. Erienne was diagnosed with a rare condition called arteriovenous malformation that can be fatal if left untreated. She has no health insurance, but she does have a great CD called The Scenic Route that is being sold to help raise funds for her costly, multiple medical procedures.

Erienne really is quite a singer, with a voice and a style unexpected from one so young as you can hear for yourself on tracks like Lush Life and Weapon of Choice. Unfortunately, she also has a knot of malformed veins in her brain that is more than an inch in diameter. She has undergone a couple of the procedures necessary to correct the problem, the most recent just before Thanksgiving, but she still has much more treatment to go. With her family lacking health insurance and Erienne facing medical bills estimated at $500,000, friends put together the above tracks with eight more recorded as a demo last December. The result was put on sale by the Denver Musicians Association for $20, with all proceeds going to pay Erienne's hospital bills. Check out erienneromaine.com to read more about this remarkable young woman and order her CD.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.