About the duo: Vanessa Jump Nelson and April Brookins Duvic were both born in April, adore singing in French, and make a mean apple pie.  It was through their activities in a variety of professional organizations, primarily the National Association of Teachers of Singing that they met in 1994.  They were featured artist of the month in May, 2003 by Nettleingham Audio, and their Christmas CD, "Christmas Joy" with pianist Paulette Hanchett and flutist Viorel Badiceanu, caught the attention of ChristmasReviews.com, where it was named one of the top picks of 2003.

With and without sabres, the Duo's concertizing has taken them all around the Northwest, including private French dinner garden parties where they have continued singing despite dogs jumping on them and a blessing from automatic sprinklers.   One of their favorite adventures was their trip to France, where, with pianist Mary Dibbern, of Paris, they performed in the Atelier Concert Series.  There they presented a concert of music by the composer and opera star Pauline Viardot, and the composers she influenced.  They returned to the United States where Mary joined them to record "Under Her Spell:  The Viardot Effect." This album has received high praise in a number of national music reviews, and was a finalist for Best Album in the category Best Opera/Classical Vocal CD for 2004 by the Just Plain Folks Music Awards.   Duelin' Sopranos, with Portland-based pianist Paulette Hanchett, flew to LA for several performances in conjunction with the awards, where they rubbed elbows with some of the world’s best independent musicians from as far away as Japan and Lithuania.  They were honored to accept the invitation to present excerpts from their nominated CD, not only at the fourth annual Pre-Awards Showcase Concert in Huntington Beach, California, but also at the 2004 JPF Music Awards Show at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, California.  Demonstrating musical diversity, they are pictured with rap group Rawbeats in the Fifth Anniversary Issue of Singer Magazine.