Kaeli Chae is a singer/songwriter from Southern Utah. She grew up listening to a wide variety of music (but mostly country and classic rock), taking piano lessons, playing flute, and participating in school choirs. Music has always played an important role in her life.

Kaeli earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English Education and Creative Writing from Southern Utah University in 2017. After graduation, she accepted her first teaching position in Escalante, Utah, one of the west’s most remote towns.

While teaching English in Escalante, Kaeli became acquainted with a woman named Mary Kaye at a parent conference night. Seeming to recognize the isolation associated with moving, alone, to a remote town, Mary Kaye welcomed Kaeli to Escalante, often inviting her to participate in her own family activities and dinners. Unbeknownst to Kaeli, Mary Kaye was an award-winning, touring, western music singer and songwriter, and they soon discovered they shared a love for country and western music. Much to Kaeli’s surprise, Mary Kaye invited her to practice and perform with her on several occasions. Though these may have seemed like small things to Mary Kaye, Kaeli attributes much of her confidence and continued pursuit of music to her positive experiences in Escalante, singing with Mary Kaye and her family.

In 2019 Kaeli moved home to Cedar City, where she enrolled in private guitar lessons, began to put serious efforts into writing her own songs, and attended open mic nights to prepare for stage performances. After an open mic night performance in St. George one evening, the D.J. booked her a slot in the Washington County Fair, and she has been gigging around Utah ever since.

In Fall of 2021, she was commissioned to write and perform a song she titled “Worth a Thousand Words” for Evok Media’s spec commercial portfolio. She also had the unexpected opportunity to “star” as a budding musician in the commercial, which is still under production.

Kaeli is currently Enrolled in an Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in English and Music Technology, taking music tech classes to expand her recording and mixing skills.

Kaeli hopes her story encourages others to continue to pursue their goals, and teaches her students that they can successfully pursue more than one dream at a time, but most importantly, through her songs, she hopes she can show that stories matter, and that it is our responsibility to tell them however we can.