Music Alum Featured at Renowned Newport Jazz Festival

University of the Arts’ alum Laurin Talese BM ’04 (Vocal Performance) is on a roll; after winning the seventh annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition last fall, she took the stage at the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 3.

Her first-place finish at the Vaughan competition earned her an invitation to the famed festival on the Rhode Island shore. Founded in 1954, the event has featured a Who’s Who of performers, from Billie Holiday to Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck to James Brown, and even Led Zeppelin.

Talese shared the bill this year with music luminaries such as Herbie Hancock, Common, Christian McBride and Diane Reeves.

Her debut album, Gorgeous Chaos, received widespread recognition, being named one of the Top 10 jazz albums of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune—which described her music as “Some of the most luxuriant, sumptuously phrased jazz vocals you could hope to hear”—and landing on three Billboard jazz charts.

She has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, and in front of a sold-out crowd at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, among many other venues., In addition, she has toured across Europe, Asia and South America.