Born on 31 March 1960 in Alsask, Saskatchewan, Canada, Plato began piano lessons while still very young. She later enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano and Voice. Relocating to Vancouver in 1985, she pursued studies in vocal jazz and arranging at Capilano College and has remained based there. During the late 1990s she also worked with Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
In 2000 her recording There’s Beauty in the Rain received a Juno Award nomination. Plato has performed across Canada and at numerous jazz festivals; her Sasktel Jazz Festival appearance that year, where she opened for Brad Mehldau, was captured for CBC’s Jazzbeat. Another project, The April Arrangement, features her original compositions alongside arrangements of standards for septet and has been presented at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre as well as at Festive Jazz in 2000. She has additionally staged programs of traditional Christmas carols and original material at the Capilano College Theatre for the Performing Arts.
That same year Plato joined DIVAS for Life, a group formed after the Vancouver magazine Lifestyles profiled six singers—Plato, Laura Crema, Dee Daniels, Kate Hammett-Vaughan, Stevie Vallance and Tammy Weis. Created to raise funds for individuals facing cancer and other life-threatening conditions, the ensemble’s first concert proved highly successful. The singers have since appeared both together and separately at SOR engagements, among them the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Despite occasional changes in membership, DIVAS have sustained strong critical response while continuing their charitable work through recordings and CBC broadcasts. Plato’s pleasing contralto lends elegance, flair and sophistication to her interpretations of standards and original songs, delivered in an unadorned, intimate manner.
