Julia Dollison

Eight years ago, the Washington Post called Julia Dollison “a deeply musical virtuoso with an airy, luminous voice.” Four years ago, critics praised Dollison's self-released debut CD “Observatory” as “rare, fresh and substantive” (JazzTimes Magazine), “richly imaginative” (Wall Street Journal) and “subtle, spontaneous and breathtaking” (Sacramento Bee).

Today, Dollison has released her newest recording project “Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider” through ArtistShare®, the Grammy Award- winning fan-based internet environment that promotes the artist's creative process. Here, she and her husband Kerry Marsh, vocalist and award-winning arranger, pay tribute to their mentor and ArtistShare's multi-Grammy Award- winning flagship artist Maria Schneider, recreating compositions written for her own jazz orchestra by multi-tracking the horn parts to create a two- voice orchestra. Dollison and Marsh will be touring this spring to promote their new CD, performing in duet with their own pre-recorded vocal tracks from the album minus the two parts they'll be singing live. The duo will also reprise songs from Dollison's “Observatory” CD and preview some of their newer arrangements and compositions.

Meanwhile, Dollison's uniquely personal brand of jazz is delighting club- goers, concert and festival audiences throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe. She's performed with the Maria Schneider Orchestra at New York's Jazz Standard, appeared by invitation at many IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) and CMEA (California Music Educators Association) conferences. Dollison premiered a concerto written for her by Grammy- nominated pianist Geoffrey Keezer, then headlined with him at the Brubeck Festival. As a performing vocalist and educator, Julia also regularly appears in California and throughout the world as a featured guest artist, clinician and adjudicator.

Since winning the DownBeat Magazine Student Music Award for Best Collegiate Jazz Vocal Soloist in 2000, Dollison has been heard at such New York clubs as Tavern on the Green, Jazz Standard, Sweet Rhythm and Cornelia Street Cafe. She's shared the stage with Jamey Aebersold, Bob Dorough, Kurt Elling, Christian McBride, Mark Murphy, Dianne Reeves, and Kenny Wheeler. She has performed and recorded backing vocals for pop artists Ben Folds, John Secada, Nell Carter and Regis Philbin. She has performed as a guest soprano soloist under the direction of symphony conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Erich Kunzel, and has appeared with the Boston Pops Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

Dollison is currently the vocal jazz program coordinator and applied jazz voice instructor at Sacramento State, winning ten total DownBeat Student Music Awards for Best College Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Best Collegiate Jazz Arrangement and Outstanding Jazz Vocal Soloist since 2005. She has also served locally as an assistant director for the DownBeat award-winning vocal jazz ensembles at American River College and Folsom High School. Dollison was previously an adjunct faculty member at the New School University in New York and at Florida's University of Miami, where she earned her B.M. and M.M. degrees in studio music and jazz vocal performance, teaching with a full assistantship while earning her graduate degree.

A classically trained soprano, Dollison has performed as a guest soloist under the direction of symphony conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Erich Kunzel, and has appeared with the Boston Pops Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra. She sang the solos in Leonard Bernstein's “Chichester Psalms” and in “Come Sunday: The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington” and has played the title role in Gian Carlo Menotti's “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” Julia also performed as a lead soprano in the “Voices of Liberty” show at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center, where she was featured as a main park attraction.

An experienced studio singer, Dollison can be heard as the soprano soloist in the Academy Award-winning “Vera Drake” film trailer (Fine Line Cinema 2004) and in film scores from “The Stepford Wives” (DreamWorks 2004) and “The Corpse Bride” (Warner Brothers Pictures 2005). She has also recorded commercials for Disney, Fox, Coca Cola, Pier One Imports, Go Girl Energy Drinks and Mattress Discounters, and has pre-recorded vocal tracks for the Florida Orange Bowl “New Year's Even Halftime” shows and parades, the 9/11 First Anniversary Memorial Service and The Rockettes' Radio City Music Hall “Christmas Spectacular” in New York.

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