Growing up on Madison’s west side, Alicia attended Shorewood Hills Elementary, Blessed Sacrament School and West High School. She was big into performing music and plenty of other creative pursuits including theater, appearing in numerous Children’s Theatre of Madison productions.
“It was like raising two children,” Gale said. “She was driven so creatively in so many different areas. Everything she touched she did amazingly well.”
After graduating from West, Alicia went to school at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, taking a double major in biology and musical theater that reflected her passion for both science and the arts. She eventually pursued the arts route, attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and then moved to New York, gigging around clubs in the city. It was during those New York years that she developed her voice as a musician.