Cheryl B. Engelhardt is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and career coach who transitioned from pop-rock to New Age music. Raised in Stamford, Connecticut, she graduated from Greenwich Academy in 1998, went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Marine Biology and Music from Cornell University, and studied music orchestration at the Juilliard School. She worked as a water quality researcher and scuba diver for the United States Geological Survey before launching her music career in New York City as an advertising and film composer, writing jingles for national ad campaigns. Engelhardt made her pop-rock recording debut with the album Shoes Off and Run in 2004, followed by Craving the Second in 2007, One Up in 2011, and Inevitably in 2015. After shifting to New Age, she released the award-winning album Luminary in 2020, followed by A Seeker's Slumber in 2021 and The Passenger in 2022, the latter of which was mixed and mastered by an all-woman team and nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album. She composed the song “The Listening”—inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence—which was recorded by Donzaleigh Abernathy and Wes Felton and premiered in People Magazine. Engelhardt received a second Grammy Award nomination at the 2026 ceremony for her album According to the Moon with GEM and the Dallas String Quartet, and she also runs the career-coaching program In the Key of Success.
