Over her 40-year career Natalie Merchant has earned a reputation for being a songwriter and recording artist of rare quality, a captivating stage performer, and a skilled producer. She has also distinguished herself as a social justice and environmental activist through her work with a wide-variety of non-profit organizations, and by creating documentary films and large-scale community arts projects.

Natalie began her musical career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and released two platinum and four gold records with the group. She left the band in 1993 and has subsequently released nine albums as a solo artist with combined sales of seven million copies.

In 2007, Merchant was appointed by Governor Elliot Spitzer to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts, and in 2022 Senator Chuck Schumer appointed her to the board of trustees of The American Folklife Center at The Library of Congress. Merchant’s awards for artistic excellence and philanthropic work include: the ASCAP Champion Award, The Library Lion Award from the New York Public Library, and The John Lennon Real Love Award. In 2025 the National Head Start Association made Natalie their national artist-in-residence, and she’s currently working on a collaboration with the Chicago Symphony and Chicago Children’s Theatre called Cabinet of Wonder (a series of free educational films introducing pre-school and kindergarten children to music and poetry).