Teens ready to hang with the Chicks

High school students Justine Defeo and Bonita Ho will play at Chick Singer Night. (JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF)

ARLINGTON - Before sitting together on a sofa in their vocal coach's studio last week, with a huge portrait of Billie Holiday hanging over them like a halo, Justine Defeo and Bonita Ho had never met. But they had a couple of things in common. They both grew up with music as a constant companion. And they could not imagine life without it.

"My biggest influence was Elvis," said Defeo, a Medford High School senior who just turned 17. "I was singing his songs at 4 years old and got a fake little guitar."

Defeo wasn't talking about that old codger Elvis Costello, mind you, which would have been impressive enough given her 1991 birth date. She was describing the jumpsuit-clad King. You know, the real Elvis. "I think it was an anniversary of his death or something and my dad was watching one of his movies," said Defeo. "I saw it and went, 'Whoa!' - I really got into it."

Ho, a 17-year-old senior who attends Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, also traces her obsession with music back to age 4. "My mom speaks nine languages and lived all over the world," said Ho. "So I listened to Turkish and Chinese music. I also grew up listening to people like Crystal Gayle, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Carole King, and people like that."

Both teenagers have transformed their passion into action. Since January, Defeo - who sings and has played guitar for nine years - has been recording and playing gigs with her Medford-based pop-punk band, also named Defeo. Ho has sung onstage with the Arlington-based Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra (at age 14) and at Boston Symphony Hall as part of this year's Boston Pops High School Sing-Off competition.

Next Thursday, both will step on the stage at Johnny D's in Somerville to perform as part of Boston's fifth annual "Chick Singer Night," a local installment of the national series of the same name (now in its 20th year; go to www.chicksingernight.com for more information). Defeo is slated to perform a set with her band, while Ho will sing songs made famous by the likes of jazz vocal titan Dinah Washington, among others. The girls are the only high school students on a four-hour local bill that also features the Julie White Band, the Dejas, Melissa Cartoun, and Kim Davidson.

Boston's installment of CSN, which was launched by veteran musicians Jennifer Truesdale and Vykki Vox, has a cool twist. All profits from Thursday's concert will be donated to local school music programs - especially those that have been cut back or cut out completely.

"Our motivation behind doing these shows is not only to promote female talent in the area, but it's also to help foster the careers and musicality of these kids, and help them move forward," said Truesdale, a vocal coach who works with Ho and Defeo. "Parents just think music is this fun thing that their kids can do. But they're not aware of the contribution it makes in overall education." Truesdale pointed to studies that have shown a correlation between music programs and higher school attendance and graduation rates, even higher SAT scores.

So far during its four-year run, Chick Singer Night has raised roughly $6,300 to benefit school-music-related activities and programs in the state. While Ho and Defeo have benefited from healthy music programs in their respective schools, they know not everyone is as lucky.

"I want to open a [performing arts] school for underprivileged children," said Ho, who plans to study music production and management in college. "A lot of kids don't fit what a school is structurally, and if they don't have that outlet - to be a part of a music program, which may be a talent or interest of theirs - they're not going to succeed academically. They don't have anything to look forward to."

Know about something cool in the local music scene? Send suggestions to Jonathan Perry at roughgems@aol.com