Lena Seikaly – Steve Herberman Duo

LENA SEIKALY is a fresh voice on the national jazz scene from Washington, D.C. Named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers” and “brightest voices in jazz” (The Washington Post), as well as a “major league young talent in jazz” by Duke Ellington’s biographer, Dr. John Hasse, Lena is already making her mark as both a revivalist of traditional jazz vocals, as well as an innovator in contemporary vocal jazz styles. She began her training at age four with piano, continued with classical voice in her teens, and went on to complete a B.M. in classical vocal performance at the University of Maryland School of Music. It was in college where Lena discovered a strong passion for jazz, and embarked on a fervent education of jazz history, styles, theory and composition before pursuing a jazz career in the Washington, D.C. area. Most recently, she was named one of eleven semi-finalists for the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition, and heads to L.A. in November for an internationally televised competition adjudicated by Al Jarreau, Freddy Cole, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Patti Austin and Luciana Souza. She was a Strathmore Artist-In-Residence in 2009-2010, a participant in the prestigious Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency in Washington, D.C. (2009) where she worked closely with Dr. Billy Taylor, Carmen Lundy, George Cables, Curtis Fuller, Winard Harper and others, and a participant at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass program in Aspen, CO (2005), directed by Christian McBride.