Jocelyn Medina

The sounds and styles of New York vocalist/composer Jocelyn Medina cross cultures and continents. Her musical background ranges from jazz, funk, neo-soul, Latin, African, reggae, rock, and pop to opera, musical theater and contemporary classical. Born into a family of singers, Jocelyn determined her identity as a musician at the tender age of five through choirs and piano lessons. She later pursued opera work at Stanford University, earned a Bachelors degree in Professional Music from Berklee College of Music, and a Masters in Vocal Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music. Further musical explorations brought Jocelyn to Ghana, West Africa, as well as Brazil, where she was exposed to more of the wide-ranging elements that continue to inspire her creative projects. She has studied with artists such as Luciana Souza, Theo Bleckmann, Peter Eldridge, Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton, Jeannette Lovetri, Lisa Thorson, Mili Bermejo, Bob Stoloff, Cheryl Bentyne and Dave Liebman. Jocelyn gathered much of her eclectic mix of artistic influences during the four years she spent living and performing abroad in Madrid, Spain. Before returning to the United States, she recorded her first full-length CD of original compositions, “The Journey Begun.” In 2011 she released her second album of original work, “We Are Water,” which topped national and international jazz radio charts and continues to receive wide-spread air play and flattering reviews. As an educator, Ms.Medina has over 14 years experience teaching singing lessons, improvisation and composition, giving vocal master-classes, and leading small group to 120-member vocal ensembles and choruses in Spain, Germany and the United States. She is fully certified in master vocal pedagogue Jeannette Lovetri’s Somatic Voicework©, a multi-disciplinary body-based method of vocal training shared by many of her past instructors and colleagues.As a bandleader, she has toured with jazz ensembles at venues and festivals throughout the United States, Europe and South America, including Spain's JAZZPARLA festival, Alte Feuermache in Mannheim, Germany, Voicingers Jazz Festival Zory, Poland, the Goethe Institute in Salvador, Brazil, and the Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai, India. Her most recent U.S appearances have been at such NY venues as the Iridium Jazz Club, Cornelia Street Café, Zinc Bar, and 55 Bar with her own group, at Lincoln Center with the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra, and at Carnegie Hall with Calpulli's Music of Mexico. Since moving to New York City in 2005, she has established herself as a unique and powerful voice in the local jazz scene. Since January of 2014, Ms. Medina has been working in Mumbai, India, where she heads the vocal department at the True School of Music teaching classes in contemporary vocal styles, fundamentals and technique. She will return to the US in June, and resume her local performances in and around New York City, as well as her pedagogical work from her studio in Brooklyn.www.jocelynmedina.com