Creative Jazz Club: Simona Minns (New York) 'My Urban Spell

CJC Creative Jazz Club Aotearoa is pleased to present Simona Minns in a special one-off concert.

Simona Minns is a Lithuanian born jazz vocalist, composer and zitherist based in New York City. As a part of her month tour in Australia and New Zealand, she is returning to Auckland, and will be presenting a program of her original music along with local talents; Alan Brown on piano, Stephen Thomas on drums, and Cameron McArthur on double bass.

Simona's style is known for its unique theatrical flavour, genre-bending, and virtuosic vocal scat improvisation. 'My Urban Spells' is a musical controversy between tribal roots, zither sounds, and chants incorporated into urban musical styles such as jazz and rock.

Her latest album, “A Hunger Artist," blends haunting vocals with elements of Lithuanian folk, jazz and even musical theatre to convey the narrative of Franz Kafka's short story by the same title.

Classically trained on Lithuanian zither, Simona earned her BA in jazz vocals at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Shortly after receiving the European Touring Scholarship, she moved to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music where she majored in Contemporary Composition and Production. She received the Berklee Outstanding Jazz Vocalist Award and regularly performs and presents workshops in the US and Europe.