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Trista Wheaton is a sixteen-year-old girl with “moxie” and is a “lovable firecracker”. “Everyone that sees her, always want's to know her, and everyone that knows her, always has a smile”.
Her performances have been described as “captivating”, “exciting”, and “mystical”. Younger fans and peers have called her “inspiring” and admire her drive to follow her plans for her future.
Trista spent the first fifteen years of her life in upstate New York, near a small city called Canandaigua in the beautiful Fingers Lakes region. She developed a love for music and drama at the age of five in a small Christian school in Naples. In the fourth grade, Trista started performing in a group called Sunrise Praise Kids, a regional ministry for children. She had the best time acting, dancing, and singing with a great group of talented kids and dedicated adults performing mini-musicals with a gospel message. From then on, she sang with her school and church choirs and pursued music lessons from local musicians. Trista also had fun competing for 3 years at her school in what was called Canandaigua Idol, and won second place the first year and first place the next two years. It gave her the confidence to audition and participate in other local singing competitions. She also sang at the local VA and coffee houses.
Too young at 13 to audition for American Idol, Trista competed in the Colgate Country Showdown and won at the local level. Judges Ken Somerville and his brother Barry are singers/song writers active in the music industry and they offered to coach her. After that she sang wherever she could. She made some other good friends at the radio station WDNB Thunder 102 who sponsored the Colgate Country Showdown in Sullivan County New York. It is because of them that she was one of the opening acts for Craig Morgan and sang at Bethel Woods before Terri Clark, Gary Allan, and Trace Adkins performed! Trista, her parents and three younger siblings moved to Nashville, Tennessee in July 2008 to pursue her dream of becoming a country recording artist.
Trista is currently working on writing her own songs, learning the guitar, and working with voice coach Sophie Shear at Singing Success & Brett Manning’s Studios. She loves all kinds of music from country to worship and everything in between. She chooses to sing country music because of the real stories the songs tell and the awesome people she has met. Some of the people that influence Trista's music are her mom, John Mayer, Leona Lewis, Adele, Miranda Lambert, Hailey Williams from Paramore, Martina McBride, Sara Evans, Lady Antebellum.
Something that might surprise people when they meet Trista is that she use to love to spar in martial arts. She was learning and competing in Karate for 5 years, nearly had earned her junior black belt, and almost chose to pursue the Junior Olympics. She chose music instead and has no regrets. Trista is very excited about her future with music!
Trista wants her future fans to feel the depth and conviction of her songs, make them laugh and cry, embrace life, and have an unforgettable time at her shows.