Honored by ‘All About Jazz’ as a “world class jazz singer” with a “spellbinding voice” and “boldly unique style”, Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based vocalist, poet, and composer LARA SOLNICKI has #1 songs on Canadian jazz radio and web charts (Radio Canada, CBC), garnering rave reviews across four continents.
She has released two CDs — “A Meadow in December” (2010), a collection of jazz standards, and “Whose Shadow?” (2014) on Greg Osby’s US label, Inner Circle Music, listed in 2016 as one of the Best Vocal Jazz releases of 2015 (Jazz History Online). She is preparing for the release of her third album “The One and the Other”, a unique art song project of her original material, produced and arranged by multi award-winning Canadian musician, composer, and producer, Jonathan Goldsmith. She has been featured in CD compilations produced by JAZZIZmagazine, and “For Jazz Vocal Fans Only Vol. 1” (Japan).
A classically trained singer with a four-octave range, Solnicki originally intended a career in opera, receiving a BA from The Glenn Gould School/Royal Conservatory of Music where she was the recipient of numerous scholarships, studying in the Performance Diploma and Artist Diploma programs. In addition, she has studied with dozens of international educators in the fields of classical music, jazz, and creative music. She has been awarded two residencies from The Ontario Arts Council (The Chalmers Professional Development Project Grant), to develop under Greg Osby (2017), and The National and International Residency Grant to study composition (2018) under Finnish pianist and composer Frank Carlberg.
Praised for “her spontaneous interpretation of standard and original repertoire, teeming with individualism and vocal mastery” (New York Spotlight, 2018), for “her outstanding musicianship” and “superb vocal technique” (Jazz History Online), and for “the purity of her voice…her understanding of the most subtle nuances in lyrics and melody…the freshness, intelligence and wit she invests in every interpretation” (Quand le jazz est là- Espace Musique), Lara was a finalist in the Révélations Radio-Canada 2014 competition (Jazz Artist category.
This evening’s singing star LARA SOLNICKI features jazz masters ROB PILTCH on guitar and SCOTT on bass, entertaining in the up-close-and-personal ambience of the Home Smith Bar.