Ann Arbor — The University Musical Society (UMS) is pleased to welcome the remarkable Samara Joy to Hill Auditorium on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, for her UMS debut as an added performance to its upcoming 145th season.
Hailing from a family of musicians in the Bronx with roots in gospel, Joy began her journey with jazz at age 17, winning the vocal honors at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition. She went on to study with the great Barry Harris and to win the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.
Joy’s voice, rich and velvety yet precociously refined, has already cemented her status as perhaps the first Gen Z jazz singing star, and with her recent Verve Records debut, Linger Awhile, Samara introduces audiences to a slew of classic standards several times older than she is through her timeless, irresistible sound.
Only the second jazz performer in Grammy history to win Best New Artist, the 23-year-old also won Best Jazz Album and continues to make her case to join the likes of Sarah, Ella, and Billie as the next mononymous jazz singing sensation recorded by the venerable label.
The new release is just one more step for the ascendant vocalist, who consistently performs in front of thousands who can’t help but hang on to every word.
Touring with her trio (piano, bass, and drums), Samara Joy will take the stage in Ann Arbor — her only stop in Michigan — on the divine Sarah Vaughan’s 100th birthday. Also set at the end of Women’s History Month, the evening will be an occasion that celebrates more than one type of Joy.
Find tickets at ums.org or 734.764.2538.
Photo by Meredith Truax
