Adelheid Erler
Adelheid Erler was born in Tyrol / Austria.
After a classical vocal training of 6 years, she studied vocal jazz and improvised music in Innsbruck.
Before that she completed an education at the college of sculpturing. Visual art has since then also been an inspiration to her.
Joint appearances with various jazz ensembles enabled her to perform in Austria, Italy, Germany, Monaco and Canada.
Anna Lukshina
Anna Lukshina is a bright, young jazz singer and composer from Nizhny Novgorod. Anna is singing since her birth but as jazz vocalist she is representing herself for three years. She finished Nizhny Novgorod conservatoire as a choir conductor. Now she continues education as an assistant. She is fond of singing jazz music. In 2015 Anna wrote her first own jazz composition .Now she tries her skill in arrangement. Some of her pieces are jazz standards and some are Russian folk songs. Anna has a surprisingly soft and warm tone of voice, great range and a special style of performance!
Arta Jekabsone
Inspired by the quote “Love what you do and do what you love” (Ray Bradbury), Arta Jekabsone is fulfilling herself with singing. Arta is born in Latvia, while singing, she had nine years of classical violin training . Last year she graduated department of jazz and popular music at Riga Choir Cathedral School, and as she won a full- scholarship at The New School For Jazz and Contemporary music, she is continuing to improve her knowledge about jazz music in New York City with great mentors such as Janet Lawson, Kate Baker, Reggie Workman, La Tanya Hall, Cecil Bridgewater, Richard Boukas, and many more.
Arta has mastered her skills and knowledge about jazz music participating in master-classes at Rigas Ritmi Festival, Brass& Jazz, Ventspils Groove, Saulkrasti Jazz.
Back in Latvia she worked with funk/groove band “Bunch of Gentlemen”, with whom she had played in Klaipeda Sea Festival (2013), Riga’s Ritmi Show Case Festival (2015), and “Let’s Groove”. Arta had the opportunity to sing at Klaipeda Castle Jazz Festival(2014) as a backup singer for Sheila Ray Charles, daughter of Ray Charles, as well as record album together. Recently, with the newest project that has been established with students during her studies at The New School, quartet “ Dinner Party” went to play at Berne Jazz Festival.
During her lifetime, she had participated in many vocal contests and awarded, in 2013 she was awarded as a 3rd prizewinner at the contest “ Ineses Galantes Talanti”.
Arta’s biggest dream is to establish her career as a musician, defining herself as apart of music, and being a color in the wide musical pallet.
Camille Barbillon
Camille discovered music when picking up the violin at age 4.
As a young girl, she first showed interest in opera music but, after a few years, she moved to Paris to study musicology where she then discovered Jazz.
First on violin, then with her voice she began to hone in on her improvisational skills while playing various Parisian venues. Now going by the stage name “Barbie Camion”, Camille performs almost exclusively with her band “Barbie and the Rhythm Factory”, which she tours throughout France, Europe, and the International Stage.
Cristina Tanase
Cristina currently lives in Bucharest, Romania developing her musical project, ‘June’, which she has been working on in the past year. It blends together a mix of styles, from jazz to pop and electro swing. She’s been inspired, since early age by a range of different artists, from Etta James and Natalie Cole to Regina Spektor and Alicia Keys.
Currently she’s working on releasing her first single, “Raise Me Up”, a feel good electro swing tune, having planned a videoclip mid May. In the long run, she’s also writing and composing songs for her first album, to be finished in autumn. Additionally, she’s taking vocal and piano lessons for a better improvement of her style and creativity.
Her musical background started in 2013, when, after graduating law school she chose music as a career. Slowly, she took first steps as a young artist, playing at different venues and writing her own songs. As a defining genre, she discovered a special preference for pop/jazz songs, even soul. At the guidance of her vocal teacher, she started focusing on jazz in the past couple of years and studying it closely. Signing up for an international jazz competition was the next big step…
Her musical journey has a motto: “If music is the language of the soul, and the language of the soul is the language of God, then music is the language of God.”
Erik Leuthäuser
Erik was born in a little town near Dresden in Germany in 1996. Erik came in contact with jazz music at a very young age, because of his father, who studied jazz guitar and works as a guitar teacher. Erik went to a musical grammer and after his a-levels in 2014 he started studying vocal jazz in Weimar with the jazz singer Michael Schiefel and later in Berlin with the American jazz singer Judy Niemack.
The young singer released his debut album on MONS Records last November. It contains Bebop with German Vocalese lyrics. He is a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Germany (BuJazzO). He recently won the first prize at the „Riga Jazz Stage“ International Vocal Jazz Competition in Latvia. He toured with different ensemble to Ecuador, Denmark, France, Italy, Romania and Poland and is appearing regularly in jazz clubs and festivals in Germany.
Esra Kayikci
Esra KAYIKCI is a singer and songwriter from Istanbul, Turkey. Esra released her debut album recording entitled BOZGUN HATIRA in 2016. She studied jazz vocal with Elif CAGLAR and Randy ESEN, attended workshops of important musicians such as Shelia JORDAN, Mark MURPHY and Judy NIEMACK. She took stage at concert venues and performs at various jazz musicians festivals. She studied Archeology and she continues to work on her thesis “Music and Women during the Antiquity Era”.
Fabio Giacalone
Fabio Giacalone is an Italian jazz vocalist who graduated in 2016 with a degree in Jazz Vocal Performance from the prestigious Berklee College of Music. He was awarded with the scholarship, “Berklee on the Road” at the Umbria Jazz Festival’s Berklee Clinic in July 2012. Music has consistently played a major role in Fabio’s life since he was a child. Fabio started out playing the violin, then moved to the piano, and then ultimately focused on his voice after being seduced by the sound of Miles Davis’s trumpet on the “Blue in Green” recording from the album, Kind of Blue.
Indre Gasiune
Indrė’s musical path started in a Jazz School in Vilnius, Lithuania, 20 years ago. As a member of an a cappella group Jazz Island she performed in various European festivals & concerts including Montreux Jazz in 2004.
Since 2008 Indrė lives in Paris and participates in different international projects as a solo singer, but also continues exploring the a cappella music in a vocal sextet.
The background of the polyphony gives her a melodic approach to improvisation where singing is the “ultimate expression of Creativity & Freedom”.
Soyoung Park
Soyoung Park, originally from South Korea, is a New York based jazz vocalist and pianist.
In 2008, Soyoung moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music as she was awarded Asia Tour Scholarship in 2008. At Berklee College of music, Soyoung majored in piano/voice performance. Afterwards, Soyoung finished her Master’s degree Program in Jazz voice at Manhattan school of music in New York. Besides her studies, Soyoung was named a top 6 finalist in Mid-Atlantic Jazz Voice competition. Currently, Soyoung is writing, arranging, teaching, performing and continues to expand her musical career.
Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition 