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Julia Dollison

Julia Dollison is a jazz-and-beyond vocalist, composer, arranger, educator and ArtistShare recording artist.

About Me

Julia Dollison has just joined forces with her husband, vocalist Kerry Marsh, releasing their debut CD “Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider” (ArtistShare, 2010). AllAboutJazz.com praises the album as “flawless and beautiful ... a vocal tour de force.” Buffalo News gives it 4 out of 4 stars, calling it “fresh and distinctive” and “absolutely haunting.” It is currently in the TOP FIVE at ArtsJournal.com, describes the CD as “a miracle of kaleidoscopically varied vocal color.”

As a solo artist, Julia also received critical praise for her self-produced debut CD ”Observatory” (LikeSoMusic, 2005), described as “fresh and substantive” (JazzTimes), ”richly imaginative” (Wall Street Journal) and “subtle, spontaneous and breathtaking” (Sacramento Bee). Performance highlights this year include Ben Folds with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, Grammy-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra rhythm section at NYC's Jazz Standard and Grammy-nominated pianist Geoffrey Keezer at the Berkeley JazzSchool.

Together Dollison and Marsh serve as traveling clinicians for the Monterey Jazz Festival Educational Program and are faculty members at the MJF Summer Jazz Camp. They also co-direct the MJF County Honor Jazz Choir, set to tour Japan this summer. The duo are in demand as guest artists, tag-team clinicians and adjudicators for many national music festivals. Since winning DownBeat Student Music Awards individually in 2000 and 2003, respectively, Dollison and Marsh have coordinated their own multi-DownBeat Award- winning vocal jazz program at Sacramento State University.