24th of August - Wednesday.
Anna Dontsova
Anya Dontsova, born in Ukraine, near the city of Odessa. Since childhood, Anya showed love for singing and was an active participant in local competitions and festivals. After secondary school she entered the Odessa Music College, where she met with the art of jazz music. In 2004, Anna entered the Kiev Institute of Music in jazz vocal department. The latest most significant musical events for Anna were participation in jazz workshops in Hodzhezh (Poland,2010), classes with Marek Balata in Kiev, and performance with American pianist Ryan Cohan. Małgorzata Hutek
Małgorzata Hutek, born and living in Lodz. Her musical journey began by learning to play the saxophone in the school of music in the class ad. Jack Delong. She is currently a student at the Faculty of Vocal Jazz at the Music Academy in Katowice. She performs and is a member of jazz society in Lodz. (Among others in 2009 she gave a concert in the hall crowning Festwial Miastograf EC1with a Czwórbęd band, in 2010 she sang the finale concert at the Festwialu Capoeira with her Quartet). On the jazz scene in Lodz she is appreciated for her professionalism, flexibility and enthusiasm to break the stylistic barriers. On The Melonami Anniversary, she made recordings for Polish Radio. Simona De Rosa
Simona De Rosa is a jazz singer from south of Italy. In 2003 she started to study vocal technique at Centro Formazione Musicale (C.F.M) in Naples. She began her musical career in 2007 on stage with Italian Big Bands and bands. From 2006 to 2008 she had a strong collaboration all over Italy with the neapoletan folk band “Sonacammanese” with whom she made a record. In September 2007 she was invited to sing with the Shymponic Orchestra “Udmurtia” directed by M° Leonardo Quadrini during festival at the Teatro Gesualdo, Avellino, Italy. After winning “Concorso Nazionale per cantanti di Big Band Jazz” Simona moved to NYC where she met pianist Benito Gonzalez with whom at "Bennett studio" in New Jersey she recorded a demo. In June the current year she was invited to the "Agorà Jazz Festival" in Naples with her quartet. Except music she dedicaded her time to geology studies taking a Degree at Federico II University in Naples. Tamara Lukasheva
Tamara Lukasheva was born on 16 of April1988 in Odessa, Ukraine. From 2003 to 2007 she studied in College of Art and Kulture in Odessa. In 2010 she entered High School of Music and Dance in Cologne (Germany). Tamara took part in quite a few competitions among which we can distinguish: 2nd place in the DoDj – International Jazz Festival in Ukraine, where she performed in duo with Roxsane Smirnova and 2nd place on the International Competition of Jazz Singers in Moscow. For five years she was a solist in Big-Band conducted by N.Goloshapov and she did some projects with U.Kuznecov and R.Smirnova. Tamara participated in International Jazz Festival "Jazz-Carnival" in Odessa. In 2008 she was part of International Festival "Varna's Summer" in Bulgaria and in 2009/2010 she participated in jazz festival "Jazz Koktebel", which in 2009 was opened by her performace.25th of August - Thursday.
Sofija Knezevic
Born in Serbia 02.04.1990. By the age of 13 she already had tours and concerts behind her, and wrote her first musical. A year after she was awarded the best classical pianist in her category in the countries of Eastern Europe, and also won that year 4 singing competitions. She is a Bachelor of Jazz Vocal Solo Performance at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. At the moment she is based in New York, where she`s continuing her education, and singing with her idols like Terence Blanchard, Christian McBride, Ed Cherry, Lalah Hathaway, Marcus Miller. She also worked with P.Diddy, Selan, Beyonce and many more. She is composing and arranging. A new born jazz star in NYC. Katarzyna Bortnik
Kasia Bortnik was born at 16.11.1976 in Wroclaw/Poland. She began to sing at the age of five. She left Poland and studied Jazz Vocal at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen/Germany in 1997-2002 by Silvia Droste and graduated. She was a singer in different projects like (inter alia): „La Voce“ with Norma Winston and Uli Beckerhoff, Youth Jazz Orchestra NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia). She won the Jazzwerk Ruhrpreis 2005 with the band „Disguise“ + „Diswojdas Orchestra“. She toured in Norway, Spain, White-Russia, France, Poland, South-Korea and recorded some CD´s, (with Disguise: „Dwa“, „Chce“). Besides this, she is a successful singing teacher in Jazz Haus Schule in Cologne and she led Workshops like: Jazzworkshop Solingen , Rock dein Block Essen ,Stage Project in Cooperation with Stage Theatre Gelsenkirchen. Her main Project right now is her CD which is called „Maruszka“. It contains compositions written by herself. Foto Emanuela Danielewicz. Kavita Shah
Kavita Shah has been hailed by the legendary Sheila Jordan as a “masterful” singer with a “deep personal connection to the music.” Originally of Indian origin, Kavita grew up in New York City listening to a mixture of Hindi film songs, jazz standards, and pop. Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, her repertoire and original compositions blend jazz, world music, and soul to produce a truly unique, cosmopolitan sound. She has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Lenox Lounge, and Minton's Playhouse, and she has had the opportunity to collaborate and take masterclasses with Jon Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Sheila Jordan, Gretchen Parlato, and Janis Siegel. Ms. Shah holds a B.A. from Harvard in Latin American Studies and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Jazz Voice at Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with Peter Eldridge, Theo Bleckmann, and Dave Liebman. Manu Domergue
A singer and a french horn player, Manu Domergue graduated from the Conservatory of Valence in 2005 with a double degree in classical and jazz French horn playing. Since then, he has participated in many workshops and Master-classes. ( Michele Hendricks, Sarah Lazarus, Monica Passos, André Minvielle, Laurence Saltiel, Kitty Margolis, Madeline Eastman, Mark Murphy, David Linx) Thanks to a Fullbright scholarship he was able to spend a year in California studying with vocal teacher Roger Letson and singing with the group Vocal Flight (winner of the Reno Jazz Festival in 2008). On 2009, he was accepted in the Jazz department of the CNSMD of Paris both in french horn and voice.26th of August - Friday.
Ewa Górska
Ewa Górska was born on 30th of April 1979. From 2001-2003 she attended Jerzy Wasowski Private Vocal School in Warsaw. In 2003 she cooperated with arranger and composer Marcin Kuczewski. Since 2004 she has been cooperating with Andrzej Rejman and Rafał Smoliński within an own music project. Her repertoire contains numerous own compositions mainly to Sara Teasdale's poems. In the project participate, among others, Janusz Smyk, Rod Paton, Adam Lewandowski. Marie Séférian
Marie Séférian is the daughter of a chamber musician and a french chanson singer. She won the german competition „Jugend musiziert“ in the category Musical twice. Besides her talent in singing she convinced the jury with her acting talent. 2004 Marie started her studies in Jazz singing at the Conservatory in Enschede (NL) and learned from Silvia Droste and Adrienne West. After two years in provincial town she took the chance to change the school and moved to Berlin for studying at the Jazz Institute in Berlin with Judy Nimack, Peter Weniger and David Friedman. In 2009 she did a tour in Chile with her Trio Gerry Getz Chet and in 2010 she was touring in Libanon with her Quartett. In September 2009 Marie Séférian won with her own Quartet the first Price of the Berlin Jazz Award. Marie’s first disc with originals came out in May 2010 on the Jazz Label Mons Records. In July 2010 she finished her studies in Berlin. She continued her Master studies with Lauren Newton and Nils Wogram in Switzerland. Wojciech Myrczek
Wojciech Myrczek was born in 1987 in Poland. He grew up in the family of musicians hence from his early years, he has been exposed to music. Graduate of the musical High School in the class of cello and theory of music, he decided to continue his musical education in the Academy of Music in Katowice (Poland) in the class of jazz singing. He is a recipient of the 1st Prize at the International Meeting of Jazz Vocalists in Zamosc 2007 (Poland) and Grand Prix at the International Jazz Vocalists Contest "Jazz Voices 2011" (Lithuania). In Lotos Jazz Festival 2010 Competition in Bielsko (Poland), he was awarded of Special Award for the most original musical personality. Since 2006 he has been also performing classical music in collaboration with "Camerata Silesia" - The Katowice City Singers' Ensemble. Fini Bearman
Singer and composer Fini Bearman is already being cited as one of the UK's leading contemporary jazz vocalists. Her heartfelt delivery and choice of material has already gained her some recognition on the London jazz scene, as well as a nomination for Jazz Vocalist 2010 by the Global Music Foundation, alongside Norma Winstone and Ian Shaw. Fini was also recently a finalist of the Jazz Voices 2011 competition in Lithuania this Spring.With a wide range of influences from Wayne Shorter to Gretchen Parlato and John Taylor, Fini strives to write songs that reflect her own experiences, both tongue in cheek and with frank honesty. With and without text, poetry settings and original words, this music explores various corners of contemporary music, citing Brazilian and South American influences alongside Western Classical traditions, modern jazz and popular music.