Home » Jazz Musicians » Lina Orfanos

Lina Orfanos

Acclaimed international vocalist and recording artist Lina Orfanos is a mezzo-soprano who sings in popular, classical, jazz, and world musical styles. She has a lush voice with faultless intonation and great rhythmic footing. Lina is immersed in the sonorous cultures of the United States, Latin America, and the Mediterranean. Singing in English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish comes easily to her. Whether performing an old Greek folk lament, paying tribute to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Night and Day,” or inspiring a young composer to set Spanish poems to music for her, Lina proves that songbirds can soar.

The Muse whispered into Lina’s ear when she was a small girl on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera with the Children’s Chorus. Since that time, she has worked hard at developing her art with private lessons, studio and university studies, and solo performances in New York City venues such as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Town Hall. A serious illness in adolescence, however, derailed her for a few years but then she returned to her vocal art with the purpose of the consummate artist that she is. Moreover, her health crisis has taught Lina about trauma and how music can help mend wounds of all kinds.

Always enjoying live performances and engagement with audiences, Lina put her remarkable recital skills, high quality repertoire, and vocal expressiveness in full throttle in her first studio album Enchanted Night (2007). Recording old and recent songs by Greece’s most famous composer, Mikis Theodorakis, Enchanted Night has been presented to audiences around the world. She has received high praise not only for her selections but for what Theodorakis himself says about Lina’s “beautiful lyricism and interpretive perfection!”

Lina holds the exclusive honor of being invited personally by Theodorakis to cross the Atlantic twice and sing on the huge concert stages of the Herodion Theater at Acropolis in 2007 and Lycabettus Hill in Athens in 2010. The composer found her singing “thrilling” and critics said that when she sang, “How lovely is my love in her everyday dress…” from The Mauthausen Cantata (1965) an invisible trembling wave moved across the theater stage and settled amid the 4,000 listeners.

Last year, Lina recorded and premiered the Ay Amor song cycle composed specifically for her voice by the gifted Dimitris Maramis. A lyrical song cycle based on Spanish poetry, Ay Amor has been received with great enthusiasm.

Read more

Tags

1
Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Quanta April – Five Women I: Lina Orfanos, Wendy Pedersen, Joyce Moreno, Letizia Gambi, and Mala Waldron

Read "Jazz Quanta April – Five Women I:  Lina Orfanos, Wendy Pedersen, Joyce Moreno, Letizia Gambi, and Mala Waldron" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


April Showers Bring May Flowers and it's raining.... Women singers...yes it is. Lina Orfanos Essentially Ella Babinis Productions 2016 Ella Fitzgerald is HOT, HOT HOT!. And if Jane Monheit's The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald (Emerald City Records, 2016) was just the beginning, then Lina Orfanos' Essentially Ella indicated the start of a trend. Orfanos' approach differs from that of Monheit's in that she sticks strictly to the middle-of-the-road, giving perfectly ...

Read more articles
5

Performance / Tour

"Essentially Ella" Lina Orfanos New Release At Metropolitan Room December 6, 13 & 26

"Essentially Ella" Lina Orfanos New Release At Metropolitan Room December 6, 13 & 26

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

Lina Orfanos's Essentially Ella out on December 12 Metropolitan Room Performances December 6, December 13 and December 26 Featuring: John Benitez, Essiet Essiet, Spiros Exaras & More! About Essentially Ella The sublime new CD by Lina Orfanos and her jny: New York City Jazz crew hits the streets on December 12! An exciting homage to The First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald. This CD captures the rhythms, the aliveness, the joy of Lady Ella and the songs she ...

"A highly stylized jazz singer with one of the best bands I have ever heard..." —New York Cabaret Today

Photos

Music

Videos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.