Avery Sunshine

White was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, a small city southwest of Philadelphia, to Ruth Eleanor White and Irving Cyril White. She began playing piano at 8, after she saw a classmate perform, and learned to read hymns before beginning to study classical music at 11. At 13 she expanded her repertoire to include jazz and had her first recital. Three years later, her Aunt, a church choir director, asked Sunshine to fill in for her during a Sunday service at a Catholic church; she was subsequently hired by churches of all denominations, including the AME Church, where she performed with the award-winning Wilmington/Chester Mass Choir. White, who sang in her high school choir, graduated from the Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1993. She attended Spelman College in Atlanta, and although she enrolled as a Piano major, she switched course after she became disillusioned with the music program. Sunshine graduated with a degree in Philosophy in 1998.