Taking a step onto the stage, sophomore singer songwriter Audrey Stenzel belongs in the spotlight, singing acoustic covers of her favorite songs and entertaining audiences with her vocals. Stenzel has been performing since her childhood, and her musical career has had significant leaps and bounds in the past year. 

Her musical journey began when she started learning the piano at age three. “I grew up with so much music. My mom constantly had music on in our house when I was growing up, and I very early on grew a connection with it,” said Stenzel. Over the years, Stenzel has learned several other instruments, including the cello, ukulele and guitar. 

While musically skilled, Stenzel has always been partial to the guitar and piano for their unique sounds. “I overall love the versatility of guitar and all the different sounds I can create. Even just for one song, I can play chords, finger picking, bass notes, and each one makes their own unique sound. My favorite genre to play is 100% indie folk or indie alternative, Phoebe Bridgers kind of stuff. You can make the coolest sounds on guitar with indie folk,” said Stenzel.     

Stenzel especially loves to perform music for various audiences. “I started going to concerts when I was around seven, and I also grew up loving theater. I really fell in love [with performing] once I was in orchestra and choir and had [concerts]. I realized how badly I wanted to be able to do that as much as possible.” Since then, she has gotten the opportunity to perform acoustic covers of popular songs on social media and in her own community, including at the Churchill St. Restaurant and the YMCA Youth in Government talent show. 

Her favorite venue to perform at is the Shoreview Farmers Market. “It’s so much fun to see all the different people, the smiles music brings to people’s faces, and to have some really great conversations with vendors and buyers,” said Stenzel. “I do TikTok live sometimes, too, if you count that as a gig, but those are fun. I’m very grateful and lucky for my opportunities.” Most of her gigs are scheduled by her mother, who she lovingly calls her “mom-ager.” 

In April 2024, Stenzel performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), marking a significant step in her career. “The RRHOF [performance] showed me how much I would love to be able to go on tour someday and have a full stage and sound set up for myself,” said Stenzel. With this opportunity, Stenzel hopes to catapult her career into larger stardom, performing at bigger gigs with greater audiences. 

Besides performing, Stenzel also enjoys songwriting. Most of her creative inspiration comes when she feels particularly passionate about an event in her life. One of her recent inspirations was going back to New York after not living there for years and feeling like it was still home. Although she has yet to perform any of her songs to the public, she someday hopes to release her music on music streaming websites once she has a larger social media following. 

For now, Stenzel plans to continue writing and singing. “Right now my plans are to just let myself enjoy music. A big worry for me is if I have big dreams and hopes to make a career out of my music, I could feel it become a chore or deal with major disappointment in my music which I really want to prevent,” she said. 

Stenzel’s January will be taken up by planning more gigs at venues like coffee shops, performance halls and new places she hopes to perform at. The singer songwriter and performer hopes to have just as much, if not more success in 2025.