Kim Nazarian is a world renowned, Grammy nominated jazz performing and recording artist, educator and clinician. Besides her work as a sought-after solo vocalist, she has been performing all over the world with the vocal group, “New York Voices“ (NYV), for more than 35 years. She is a jazz voice teacher for Vocal Jazz Majors at both Ithaca College and SUNY Fredonia. She also shares her perspectives on music and life as a musician, teaching private students in her own personal studio as well as offering clinics, workshops, and masterclasses, adjudicating festivals, participating in jazz camps and guest conducting for singers on all levels in the US and abroad.
One of Nazarian’s most recent accolades was being awarded the “Jazz Educator of the Year 2023″ by the JEN organization. She is the first female, and the first vocal jazz recipient of this prestigious honor. In the summer of 2022, she also became the first woman to head the jury of the A Cappella Competition in Aarhus, Denmark. Continuing to climb the professional ladder, Kim has added Artistic Director to her list of titles, working with the established team of the DeMiero Jazz festival.
Harkening her heritage, Nazarian was recognized as one of the top 50 most influential Armenian artists in 2012, and inducted into her hometown High School’s Hall of Fame. She is also proud to be the lead vocalist for the Latin influenced jazz ensemble “El Eco“, spearheaded by Argentinian drummer and composer Guillermo Nojechowicz; and appears as a featured vocalist on the 2 latest CD’s of Gabriel Espinosa.
Besides the many recordings of NYV, Kim Nazarian can be heard on many different projects as a soloist. Branching out on her own in 2015, she released her first solo CD entitled “Some Morning“ with remarkable guests including Paquito D’Rivera, Gary Burton, John Pizzarelli and Sean Jones. Her record was met with critical acclaim stating: “This set sets the gold standard for Jazz vocalists“ from Midwest Records, Chris Spector and Best Jazz Vocal CD 2015 from W. Royal Stokes, Jazz Historian and Critic. Kim is proud to be one of the featured voices on Bobby McFerrin’s “VOCAbuLarieS“ CD which garnered three grammy nominations. She also collaborated with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the Manchester Craftman’s Guild on a concert tour dedicated to the late, great Ella Fitzgerald.
Nazarian’s work as a lyricist can be heard on the NYV CD’s and in other projects throughout the world, e.g. with Brazilian composer Ivan Lins and the Metropole Orchestra. Most notably, Nazarian wrote “World of Possibilities”, the title track to the accompanying CD of Bill Strickland’s best selling book “Making the Impossible Possible“.
Kim is a dedicated teacher of vocal technique and the art of ensemble singing and a highly valued clinician at numerous vocal festivals around the world. She has been representing the USA as a judge for the International A Cappella Competition “Vokal.Total” in Graz, Austria since 2011, was a member of the 2017 jury at Vocal Asia, worked with a highly acclaimed jury in Korea, and has recently become a regular coach at the groundbreaking Black Forest Voices Festival. Touring the globe over the last 35 years, Kim Nazarian has given concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and the Montreal International Jazz Festival, to name a select few. Furthermore, Kim has conducted several All State Vocal Jazz Choirs in the US for NY, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Maine, California, and Illinois.
Nazarian is a magna cum laude graduate of Ithaca College and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting. When not making music, she loves to be home in Oberlin, Ohio with her husband, son, and sheep-a-doodle, Doxy, on her 6.5-acre farm… cooking, gardening, reading, and watching films.