About this Performance

Vanisha Gould is a jazz vocalist, composer, and bandleader based in New York City. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Vanisha has built an international reputation for her soulful voice, nuanced songwriting, and dynamic stage presence. She has performed around the globe, with appearances in Russia, Sweden, and at the renowned Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

In New York, Vanisha has graced the stages of Smalls Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Minton’s Playhouse, The Django, the Jazz Gallery, and more. Her versatility has also led her to featured roles in acclaimed productions such as The Sound of Black Music and Bessie, Billie, Nina—paying tribute to the legendary women of jazz and blues.

As a recording artist, she has released three original albums: In Her Words (2021), Life’s a Gig (2024), and She’s Not Shiny, She’s Not Smooth (2024). Her compositional work is also featured on projects by Grant Richards and Alex Tremblay.

Vanisha is committed to arts education and currently teaches songwriting and jazz vocals through the Tribeca Jazz Institute and the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective. She is a 2024 recipient of the New Jazz Works Artist Residency at The Jazz Gallery.

Creative Credits

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Curator

Composer, singer, and visual artist, Cécile McLorin Salvant, is passionate about storytelling and exploring connections between vaudeville, blues, folk traditions, theater, jazz, and baroque music. An eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, power dynamics, twists, and humor once described as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings” by the late, great Jessye Norman. She won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010 and received Grammy Awards for three consecutive albums: “The Window,” “Dreams and Daggers,” and “For One To Love.” In 2020, she received the MacArthur fellowship and Doris Duke Artist Award. Her debut and follow up Nonesuch Records projects, “Ghost Song” (2022) and “Mélusine” (2023), each received two Grammy nominations. Salvant’s latest work, “Ogresse”, arranged by Darcy James Argue, is a musical fable in the form of a cantata that blends several styles of composition resulting in an expansive sonic landscape.