Kristina Morales

With an incandescent brilliance, rising star Kristina Morales' voice shines across the heart of the city of New Orleans with illuminating clarity and burns with heart-wrenching warmth. She electrifies and charms her audience with a vulnerable passion and is commended by musicians and audiences alike for her use of vocal instrumentation while still giving lyrical color with a delicate seamlessness. A native of New Orleans, Kristina grew up in the heart of the French Quarter in her parent's restaurant. There in the glow of the city, she was exposed to cultural and sophisticated music at a very young age. Kristina's musical journey began when she was just a child. Her deep passion for music eventually led her to the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, a high school conservatory responsible for developing the talents of many of today's world class musicians, artists and performers. At NOCCA, she studied classical voice for four years and honed her theatrical skills for three as a musical theater major. Her time and dedication to her art landed Kristina a spot in one the country's top conservatories for musical theater, The Boston Conservatory. In Boston, she explored and nurtured the variety of vocal colors available to her gift and collaborated with an array of musicians from The Boston Conservatory and the Berklee School of Music in genres of jazz, r&b, pop, hip hop, world and folk. Surrounded by young, inspiring artists and musicians all over Boston, Kristina's creativity flourished but her thirst for knowledge remained insatiable. After graduation, Kristina returned home to New Orleans in order to help with the musical and theatrical rebirth of the city. Since her return, Kristina has journeyed through a variety of musical projects and genres. Constantly seeking to educate herself, she has studied and played with some of New Orleans' finest musicians and creative visionaries. Her own band is a testament to that musical journey that is ever-expanding. The project draws its inspiration from the celebratory spirit of latin music and ethereal hues and textures of modern jazz, while traveling through genres of neo soul and rock and breathing in new life to classic jazz standards and world traditional music. Currently Kristina has been wowing audiences around New Orleans in beloved venues such as the Blue Nile, The Spotted Cat Music Club, The Columns Hotel, Bacchanal Wine, Three Muses, Dos Jefes Cigar Bar, Oak Wine Bistro, Cafe Giovanni's, The Maison, The Balcony Music Club and The Steak Knife's Studio A.

Her fluid versatility is showcased in a number of bands. In addition to her modern jazz project, Morales fronts her own traditional New Orleans jazz band, Kristina Morales & The Bayou Shufflers, sings with the electro-jazz rock band, The Kirk Nasty, and is a featured vocalist in the modern gypsy jazz quartet, The Courtyard Kings. Her debut album, Wonderful World, is scheduled to release in New Orleans in the fall and worldwide shortly after. Show less