2021 El Intruso Critics Poll Vocalist of the Year
2020 NPR Jazz Vocals
2020 El Intruso Critics Poll Vocalist of the Year
2020 Jazz.pt Musician of the Year
2019 DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll Female Vocalist-Rising Star
________________________________
A native from Lisboa, Portuguese Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, improviser, who through her practice and performance, explores the use of the voice as an instrument. Serpa has been working in the field of jazz, improvised and experimental music, since moving to New York in 2008. Literature, film, visual arts, nature and history inspire Serpa in the creative process and development of her music. Described by the New York Times as “a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook,” and by the JazzTimes magazine as “a master of wordless landscapes,” Serpa started her recording and performing career with jazz luminaries such as Grammy-nominated pianist, Danilo Perez, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow pianist, Ran Blake, and Greg Osby.
Her ethereal music draws from a broad variety of inspirations including literature, film, visual arts as well as history and nature. As a leader, she has produced and released ten albums, the latest being Intimate Strangers (2021) and Recognition (2020).
Recognition is a singular multi-disciplinary work that traces the historical legacy of Portuguese colonialism in Africa through moving image and sound, Recognition features Zeena Parkins (harp), Mark Turner (saxophone) and David Virelles (piano). Intimate Strangers, is a collaboration with Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma, an interdisciplinary musical performance that portrays the writer’s travels in several African countries, featuring Sofía Rei, Aubrey Johnson(voice), Matt Mitchell (piano) and Qasim Naqvi (modular synth).
Serpa was voted 2020 NPR Jazz Vocalist, Rising Star-Female Vocalist 2019 by the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll, and teaches at The New School and New Jersey City University. Currently Serpa is Artist-In-Residence at Park Avenue Armory, in New York and a recipient of New York City Women’s Fund 2020, Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant 2019, New Music USA 2019 Grant, 2021 USArtists Grant from Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts, and 2021 Herb Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Composition.
Serpa has been active in gender equity in music and is the co-founder (along with fellow musician Jen Shyu) of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³), an organization created to empower and elevate women and non-binary musicians.
Serpa has collaborated with an extensive array of musicians including Ingrid Laubrock, Erik Friedlander, John Zorn, Nicole Mitchell, André Matos, Okkyung Lee, Guillermo Klein, Linda May Han Oh, Kris Davis, Okkyung Lee, Sofía Rei, Chris Tordini, Caroline Davis, Angelica Sanchez, Thomas Morgan, Dan Weiss, Jacob Sacks, Malika Zarra, Erica Lindsay, Matt Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Mark Turner, David Virelles, Tyshawn Sorey, Leo Genovese, Ben Street, Adam Cruz, Demian Cabaud, Fabian Almazan, Aya Nishina, Ashley Fure, Andreia Pinto Correia, Derek Bermel, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., among many others.
She has performed her own music in Europe, Australia, North and South America, singing at international festivals such as Bergamo Jazz Festival, Festa do Jazz, the Panama Jazz Festival, Festival de Jazz de Montevideo, Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Adelaide Festival, Sopot Jazz Festival or venues like Bimhuis, Casa da Música, Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard, The Stone, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, the Met Breuer, and the Kennedy Center for the Arts, among others.
_________________________
“A fresh and riveting presence on the vocal-jazz landscape.“ Nate Chinen, JazzTimes
“Serpa possesses a preternatural cool, injecting weightless sophistication and melodic grace into everything she touches.” Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
“Ms. Serpa is cool all over, from concept to execution.” Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
“Her subtlety and sureness command serious attention.” The New Yorker
“Literally, she sounds as if she must sing whenever she speaks.” All About Jazz
“She’s unique beyond words.” Siddhartha Mitter, Boston Globe
_________________________________
(If you want to know more, keep reading!…)
Serpa’s innovative approach has been praised since her debut album Praia (2008) was released, as stated by All About Jazz: “(…) she raises profound questions regarding the previous role of the vocalist in jazz. She sings as an instrumentalist, as a member of an ensemble with a bold conception (…) —not the star of some show.”
With literature has a source of inspiration, Serpa released the album Mobile (2011), title that refers to themes of travel and movement, reflects her passion for reading. Inspired by authors from Homer to Melville to V.S Naipaul, and featuring André Matos, Kris Davis, Ben Street and Ted Poor, it was noted as “work of art in motion” by the Chicago Jazz Magazine and outlined by JazzMan Magazine (France): “Serpa’s commitment to this special and difficult project works wonders – it would be difficult not surrender to it.”
Serpa’s collaboration with her teacher/ mentor, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow pianist Ran Blake resulted in three recorded albums, providing fertile ground for the singer to explore/ interpret the Great American Songbook along with Film-Noir: Camera Obscura (2010), Aurora (2012), Kitano Noir (2015), the latter described by PopMatters as “wonderfully hypnotic”.
Serpa’s collaboration with guitarist André Matos resulted in two albums: Primavera (2014), praised by the New York Times as an album “that capitalizes on their many affinities: as limber improvisers, as thoughtful composers, as selfless ensemble players, and as internationalists” and All The Dreams (2016) “is music in its purest form” (Jazzarium Magazine). The Portuguese native and New York based artists work together since 2005. They achieved to create a unique sonic world, drawing upon pure and contemplative sounds through a personal approach to melody and poetry.
Recognition (2020) is a singular multi-disciplinary work that traces the historical legacy of Portuguese colonialism in Africa through moving image and sound, Recognition features Zeena Parkins (harp), Mark Turner (saxophone) and David Virelles (piano). Intimate Strangers (2021), is a collaboration with Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma, an interdisciplinary musical performance that portrays the writer’s travels in several African countries, featuring Sofía Rei, Aubrey Johnson(voice), Matt Mitchell (piano) and Qasim Naqvi (modular synth).
Sara Serpa is a member of Mycale, an international a-capella quartet commissioned by McArthur Fellow and avant-garde composer John Zorn whose newest release Gomory (2015) was praised by The New York Times as “astonishingly beautiful, a high point in the series; it sounds medieval and new at the same time.”
Sara Serpa was the first Portuguese musician to ever perform at the renowned New York jazz venue, The Village Vanguard, in 2008 and 2009 with Greg Osby’s group. Serpa was voted as “Musician of the Year” in 2010 by the newspaper O Público, one of the major daily publications in Portugal, and was the cover of the U.S magazine Jazziz in 2012. Most recent distinctions include the 2019 DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll Female Vocalist-Rising Star, 2020 NPR Jazz Vocals, El Intruso Critics Poll 2020 and 2021 Vocalist of the Year, and 2020 Jazz.pt Musician of the Year.
Serpa’s accomplishments extend beyond the jazz world. Serpa has performed/ interpreted music of contemporary composers such as Ashley Fure with the New York Philharmonic, Andreia Pinto- Correia, Derek Bermel (with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Allan Miller), Aya Nishina (Flora (2014), and Joseph C. Phillips Jr. (Changing Same (2015). Serpa is also an orbiting member of Constellation Chor, a vocal performing ensemble led by Marisa Michelson.
A New England Conservatory Master of Music (MM) in Jazz Performance, and a graduate from ISPA (Portugal) in Social Work and Rehabilitation, the Portuguese singer completed her Piano and Classical Singing Studies at Lisbon National Conservatory. She later fell in love with Jazz and Improvisation through the Hot Clube de Portugal’s school, while working on her research thesis about Refugee Women in Portugal. She relocated to the United States in 2005 to attend Berklee College of Music, followed by New England Conservatory.