- Summer Rona is an award- winning composer, artist, and producer whose career has taken her around the world and throughout the industry-- from her Sundance debut acting with Jane Lynch in Adventures of Power, to opening for the legendary Diana Ross with her son Evan at the Hollywood Bowl, to singing a duet with Jermaine Jackson in Las Vegas, and even to producing major commercial spots and talk shows-- Summer is a truly diverse talent.
Summer was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to a musical family-- Her father was a classical pianist, and her mother was a singer and voice teacher. Summer has Jewish, French, and English roots. She says of her parents, "They met in a band and had me a year later. It's because of music and love that I am here."
Summer's upbringing fostered her own love of art. She began performing with her parents as a toddler, then, as an older child, spent years touring with various singing and dancing troupes. By the time she left for college, Summer was a skilled singer, dancer, and keyboardist, as well as a budding songwriter. She graduated with a major in The Recording Industry and a minor in Music Business and immediately founded her own, fully- funded production company, Sunmertime Productions, LLC. She would spend the next segment of her career in bustling Nashville before eventually making the transition to the entertainment industry's capital of Los Angeles.
Summer has enjoyed a thriving songwriting career. She received First Place for her piece "Soul Static" on Ourstage.com and has also received honors from the Paramount Music and John Lennon Songwriting Contests. Her original songs have been placed in major motion pictures, commercials, video games, and on TV shows, such as the CW's 90210 and Beverly Hills Nannies on ABC. Summer's writings have been sung and recorded by pop, soul and country artists, and in 2012 she wrote and produced an original song for celebrity designer Michael Costello that was played at the Project Runway Finale Fashion Show live in New York.
A fiercely passionate performer in her own right, Summer has graced stages all around the world and sang in many languages, often entertaining crowds as large as twenty-thousand. Paul Williams, President of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, summed her up well when he referred to the artist as simply, "A talented lady." You can hear her voice on the radio, iTunes, the American Idol Official Video Game, television shows, in commercials and jingles, and featured as a guest artist on albums such as Big Swedes' BS in Da Club and Question Everything by UK hip hop artist, Antix. Her music video collaboration with Antix, "Dear Summer," was based on her true- life story, and it amassed over 108k views on YouTube in a month. In 2012, her song, "Ready" was awarded "Best Song in Film" by the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for its appearance in the major motion picture Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day, starring Blair Underwood. In 2013, the Awards then named Summer Rona "Best Female Vocalist".
Throughout her life, Summer has woven her love of acting into her creative career. She began her study of the art form early while growing up in Salt Lake City, and later continued to train in Los Angeles with private coaches and at Hollywood acting schools such as The Actors Corp. On top of her film festival debut at Sundance in Adventures of Power, Summer played a supporting role in indie flick Slow, and can be seen in the Jessica Lange/Kathy Bates movie Bonneville.
Along with acting, Summer also produces content for the stage and screen. With her company, Summertime Entertainment, LLC, Summer has produced fun commercial spots for clients such as Money Train Title Loans. She was recently delighted to be invited to music direct a production of The Sound of Music at the long- beloved Topanga Community Center in the Los Angeles neighborhood she currently calls home. Summer has also directed numerous theatrical performances as a faculty member at the prestigious American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Furthermore, she was the Morning Show Talent and Commercial Producer at FOX 17 in Nashville, where she produced and appeared in over eighty live commercial spots per month. Most recently, she was the production manager for the Orgena Rose Show on The Divine Spirit Network, a new program fondly nicknamed "The Next Oprah." Summer uses these behind- the- camera- skills to serve as executive producer and director for her own music videos, taking charge of her solo career.
Summer describes herself as "an extremely spiritual woman with a combination of Jewish, Mormon, Buddhist, hippy, Sufi and Gypsy ideals." A true creative in every sense, she often fondly refers to her trademark taste in fashion as "earthy glam." Summer says she seeks to reflect her own life experiences and truths through her artistic work, and to connect with her audience on a deep, soul- to- soul level. She states that her upcoming 2018 album will be her "most soulful yet" and that in the next year she plans to license even more original works for use in film and television, and by major artists.
Summer recently returned from Paris where she recorded an especially personal project-- an album entitled "Summer in Paris", inspired by her love affair with the city and her French grandmother's dying wish for her to learn the language. When she isn't composing music under the Parisian sun, Summer continues to be based in Los Angeles. She is managed by David Waechter at Imagine Music.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jennifer Mitchell
- Her great grandpa was David M. Kennedy, Secretary of Treasury for Nixon.
- Her aunt Faune was one of her best friend's and died from multiple myeloma in 2014.
- Sang backgrounds with Evan Ross and they opened for Diana Ross at the Hollywood Bowl. The performance was featured on E!.
- First professional singing gig was at The Lee Greenwood Theatre in Pigeon Forge, TN where she performed 9 shows a week to a 1,700 seat theatre.
- Her paternal grandmother was French from Strausbourg and her dying wish was for Summer to learn French. She lived in Paris for 9 months where she picked up French singing in underground cabarets.
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