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Arta Jekabsone

New York City-based Latvian singer, composer, and arranger Arta Jēkabsone is recognized for her velvety tone. Arta engages listeners with an emotional and honest, adventurous, and joyful expression of music. Her awards include a 1st place win at the prestigious Montreux Shure Jazz Voice Competition 2016, 3rd place at the 10th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Voice Competition 2021, 2nd place at Mid- Atlantic Jazz Voice Competition 2017, and 3rd prize at Ella Fitzgerald International Vocal Competition 2019. Recently, Jēkabsone was awarded The Jazz Gallery Residency Commission Grant 2021/2022. In 2023, Jēkabsone received the highest form of state recognition in the field of music, the Latvian Music Award “New Artist of the Year 2022”. ASCAP Foundation recently recognized her with an honorable mention in the 2024 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards and in May 2024 she concluded her artist residency at The Church in Sag Harbour.

Jēkabsone’s musical horizons start with simple Latvian folk song melodies, harmonies, and structures yet can reach something more complex—closer to the world of improvisation. The unifying element is storytelling. She also finds scat singing and improvisation to be adventurous aspects of her artistry. As Arta once explained, improvisation is like creating instant compositions without a score, just taking risks, and telling stories.

Unconditional love for music has been rooted in Jēkabsone’s childhood. Alongside voice, the violin has always been a part of Arta’s musical development. She calls it her heart instrument. She believes that playing the violin has been one of the determining factors in her ability to hear sounds the way she does. She plays violin the way she sings and vice versa.

Artists such as Ella Fitzerald, Bobby Hutcherson, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Flora Purim, Tatiana Parra, Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, Hermeto Pascoal, Itibere Zwarg, and Kurt Rosenwinkel have influenced her musical perspective.

In Jēkabsone’s original music, nature holds a special significance. Having grown up around forests and a river in the small Latvian town Kandava, she used to sing folk songs about nature. These songs talked about the sun, moon, birds, and Latvian women being often compared to blooming flowers. She is bonded with nature in her style of writing lyrics.

In 2017, with support from Montreux Jazz Artist Foundation Arta Jēkabsone released her debut album Light. Several projects have been completed since then, including a duo album with Erik Leuthäuser, Yesterday Still Lies Between the Floorboards, as well as Edgars Cīrulis International Group’s Aisma album Aisma Volume I. She has performed at many international jazz festivals, including the Montreux Jazz Festival, Enjoy Jazz Festival, Nikolaisaal Potsdam Festival, Berne Jazz Festival, and others. A funk singer, jazz trio member, and backup singer for Sheila Ray Charles, daughter of Ray Charles, have been among Arta’s many musical endeavors. In March 2017, she attended the Montreux Jazz Academy adventure featuring prestigious mentors such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Marcus Miller, Yaron Herman, etc. Her work and performance with Electric Combo (RDKS) made her a nominee for Best Concert Recording and Best Debut in Latvia’s Music Awards Ceremony Zelta Mikrofons. Her original music project Reflections was nominated for Latvian Annual Concert 2019.

In the past few years, Arta has performed at NYC’s most imaginatively booked jazz club, The Jazz Gallery, where most of her original music has been premiered. A few of these include her debut album Light, Reflections, multidisciplinary and bilingual performance Letters to Home, and now Searching for a Song, her residency commission. Arta has been featured at The Jazz Gallery’s Lockdown Sessions alongside artists like Camila Meza, Aaron Parks, Dayna Stephens, and many others.

In recent years Arta Jēkabsone has been actively working as a composer, collaborating with artists and ensembles, creating more original work. She was commissioned to compose music for ORCHESTRA RĪGA alongside her colleague and composer Edgars Cīrulis. Together they wrote new contemporary music concert program Winter Portraits based on a fairytale by H.C.Andersen The Ice Queen. Besides her, The Jazz Gallery commission grant, her newest composition Kas Var Dziesmas Izdziedāt for mixed choir and orchestra will be premiered at the XV Latvian Song and Dance Festival in the USA this summer in Minnesota.

Currently, Arta and Erik Leuthäuser are working together on their second studio album BEACHFINDS. This album is inspired by the poetry of Dean Wilson. A short film Dean World directed by Dave Lee features some of their original music from the upcoming album. In addition to her projects, Jēkabsone sings backup vocals for Argentinian singer and composer Carolina Mama and Grammy-nominated musician Samir LanGus, exploring Gnawa music

Arta defines herself as a part of the music and is a vibrant color in the broad musical palette.

Awards

The Church, Sag Harbour Residency recipient (2024)
2024 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards honorable mention recipient for bigband composition Kaķpēdiņas (2024)
Emerging Artist of the Year 2022 for The Grand Music Award in Latvia (2023)
3rd prize at Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition (2021)
The Jazz Gallery Residency Commission Grant 2021 recipient
1st prize at Montreux Shure Jazz Voice Competition in Switzerland (2016)
2nd prize at the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Voice competition (2017)
3rd prize at the International Ella Fitzgerald Voice Competition (2019)
Finalist at Big Band Composition Competition for Young Baltic Composers (2020)
Awarded for the Latvian Annual Concert 2019 award on Latvian Radio Klasika 3 (2019)
Nominated for Best Concert Recording and Best Debut in Latvia's Music Award of the Year Zelta Mikrofons with Electric Combo (2015)

Gear

JZ Microphones HH1Dynamic Microphone
Shure KSM8 Dualdyne Dynamic Vocal Microphone
Shure Beta 58A
TC Helicon VoiceLive Touch 2 Vocal Processor
MiMU Gloves (-in progress)

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Tags

“The Latvian-born artist has crafted a sound niche reflective of her journeys, both physical and emotional. Hope, wanderlust, and self-reflection emerge as raw materials for carefully sculpted compositions; her lyrics brim with intimacy.” (Jazz Speaks by Stephanie Jones)

“…she delivered a beautiful array of pieces that gorgeously framed her clear tone, understated phrasing, and a knack for memorable melodies. But more deeply, Arta created a meditation on light, in its natural form certainly, but also in its spiritual and human capacity.” (Hot House Jazz Guide- Seton Hawkins)

“In her music, you can hear warmth, gratitude, and compassion, as well as crystal-clear intention and focus. (Jazz Speaks by Noah Fishman)

“Beyond her vocal artistry, Jēkabsone is a perceptive composer and curator, developing interdisciplinary projects that expand across style, media, and time period.” (Jazz Speaks by Kevin Laskey)

“She is a beauty on stage, but in a very natural way, honest and playful – totally into the music; – let’s call her Arta Sunshine Jēkabsone.” (Montreux Jazz Shure Voice Competition diaries by Sabine Kühlich)

“Those that hear her cannot forget her immensely positive energy and refined mastery of craft that is truly one of a kind.” (Multi-instrumentalist, gamer, and composer Jasper Dütz)

“Arta Jēkabsone is a voice that will soothe any pain or suffering. She is the guardian and ambassador of light, love, and peace. Yet, she still can bedazzle you with complex, but not overwhelming lines and melodies, and she freely takes command of harmony and rhythm.” (Composer and pianists Edgars Cīrulis)

“Every now and again something truly new comes around. It’s rare, so when that happens, the experience is truly special. Such an experience is awaiting one’s ears when they experience the artistry which is Arta Jekabsone. Her compositions are rooted in her life’s journey, infused with the deep roots of her native country, and most importantly, her performances are filled with the genuine, real, authentic expressions which are at the heart of her improvisations. Her voice communicates powerfully and her compositions and arrangements are equally moving. It was a pleasure to have her at the Jazz Loft and to collaborate with her on stage.” (Thomas J. Manuel, D.M. .President & Founder, The Jazz Loft, Inc.)

"There’s a beguiling oddness to hearing the words “I put the blue bin out in my best blue pyjamas” sung by a voice as clear and as pure as cold water drawn from a ell in a fairytale village. This air of ethereal otherness hangs throughout the rest of the collection, like Scandinavian mist…Beachfinds is a very special and affecting collaboration. And aptly named, too. It’s like a beautifully polished piece of sea glass held up to the sun. A bit like Dean Wilson himself. Hats off to Erik and Arta for taking Dean’s words and dressing them up in new and different clothes." (The Crow’s Nest, a music column by Russ Litten)

"A magical production that blends wordless vocal beauty with a neo-classical instrumental glow, “Dedication (for Gabi)” is an engaging new track from New York-based artist Nick Marks. Arta Jēkabsone’s vocals are enthralling, cohesively implemented alongside upright piano with inventive effects and electronica aspects."( Obscure Sound, a music column by Mike Mineo)

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Primary Instrument

Vocals

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

Arta Jēkabsone's educational experiences include teaching jazz voice and technique workshops, jazz ensemble repertoire, and compositional courses. She has taught workshops internationally at Ventspils Groove 2022 & 2023, Siguldas Starptautiskie Meistarkursi 2023, JazzKuko Festival 2017, and Liepāja Music 2017. Recently, Arta Jēkabsone and Swedish London-based vocalist Liselotte Östblom co-founded The Vocal Retreat, which is an online-based vocal workshop focusing on vocal techniques for contemporary singers. Since 2023 Arta Jēkabsone is a faculty at New York Concervatory of Music. She also teaches privately in her NYC home-studio and via zoom.