Latvian Vocalist, Composer & Arranger | Based in New York City

Latvian-born vocalist, composer and arranger Arta Jēkabsone infuses her jazz with Baltic soul and an unshakable sense of storytelling. Seamlessly blending Latvian folk melodies with contemporary jazz expression, she crafts music that is both intimate and daring. Her voice radiates warmth, clarity, and fearless emotional depth.

Jēkabsone is the winner of the Montreux Shure Jazz Voice Competition and has placed among the top three in several other prestigious international competitions, including the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Voice Competition. Her acclaimed debut album Light brims with intimacy, warmth, and crystal-clear focus.

A recipient of The Jazz Gallery Residency Commission Grant (2021–2022), Jēkabsone regularly premieres original works at The Jazz Gallery in New York City. In 2023, she received Latvia’s highest recognition in music, the Latvian Music Award for New Artist of the Year. In 2024, she earned an honorable mention in the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards (ASCAP Foundation) and completed an artist residency at The Church in Sag Harbor. Most recently, she received the 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship and joined the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, where she is developing new works for big band.

Jēkabsone’s latest album, Dziesmu Kamoliņš / Garland of Songs (released October 16, 2025), explores the rich heritage of Latvian folkloric music through her unique contemporary lens. The album was nominated for the Latvian Recording Award “Golden Microphone” for Best World Music Album. She is also preparing Impressions of an Era, a collaborative album featuring the Latvian Radio Big Band and saxophonist/composer Toms Rudzinskis.

Jēkabsone’s performances invite audiences into a sonic space where heritage, innovation, and emotion converge – elevating jazz with a distinctly Baltic warmth, imagination, and spirit.

Full Biography

New York City-based Latvian vocalist, composer, and arranger Arta Jēkabsone creates a distinctive musical language where the melodies, harmonies, and stories of Latvian folklore meet the spontaneity and exploration of jazz improvisation. Known for her velvety tone, emotional honesty, and adventurous approach to music, Jēkabsone connects with audiences through deeply personal storytelling, creating performances that are both intimate and daring.

Jēkabsone’s artistry has received international recognition as both a vocalist and composer. She won the Grand Prix at the Montreux Shure Jazz Voice Competition and placed third at the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Voice Competition. In 2023, she received the Latvian Grand Music Award for New Artist of the Year, Latvia’s highest national recognition in music. Her recent honors include the 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Music/Sound and an honorable mention in the 2024 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards, presented by the ASCAP Foundation. She is currently participating in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, developing new works for large ensemble.

In 2021–2022, Jēkabsone received The Jazz Gallery Residency Commission Grant, resulting in her large-scale original work Searching for a Song. She has also completed artist residencies at The Church in Sag Harbor and Tofte Lake Center in Minnesota, where she expanded her interdisciplinary approach to composition, performance, and storytelling.

At the heart of Jēkabsone’s music is storytelling. Her compositions often draw from Latvian folk melodies, traditional harmonies, and poetic imagery, transforming these elements into intricate musical landscapes shaped by improvisation and contemporary jazz. She views improvisation as a form of instant composition, a moment of risk, discovery, and communication between musicians and listeners.

Nature remains a central source of inspiration in Jēkabsone’s creative world. Growing up surrounded by forests and the river landscape of Kandava, Latvia, she was immersed in folk songs celebrating the sun, moon, birds, seasons, and the profound relationship between people and the natural world. These images continue to shape her artistic voice, where landscape, memory, and human emotion intertwine.

Jēkabsone’s musical foundation began in childhood through both voice and violin. She considers the violin her “heart instrument,” and years of instrumental study continue to shape the way she hears, phrases, and approaches the voice. Her musical perspective has been influenced by artists across jazz and improvised music, including Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Bobby McFerrin, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Flora Purim, Hermeto Pascoal, and Chick Corea.

Since releasing her debut album Light in 2017 with support from the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation, Jēkabsone has developed a diverse body of work spanning jazz, contemporary composition, Latvian folk traditions, and interdisciplinary performance. Her projects include the duo album Yesterday Still Lies Between the Floorboards with German vocalist Erik Leuthäuser, BeachFinds (2022), inspired by the poetry of Dean Wilson, and Dziesmu Kamoliņš / Garland of Songs (2025), a deeply personal reimagining of Latvian folkloric music created with support from Latviešu Fonds and PBLA. Garland of Songs was nominated for the Latvian Recording Award Zelta Mikrofons in the World/Folk Music Album category.

Jēkabsone’s original music has been presented at internationally recognized venues and festivals including the Montreux Jazz Festival, Enjoy Jazz Festival, Nikolaisaal Potsdam, Bern Jazz Festival, Harpa Reykjavík, Roy Thomson Hall, NJPAC, and The Jazz Gallery in New York City. At The Jazz Gallery, she has premiered several original projects, including Light, Reflections, the multidisciplinary bilingual work Letters to Home, and her residency commission Searching for a Song.

As a composer, Jēkabsone continues to expand beyond traditional jazz formats. Together with composer Edgars Cīrulis, she was commissioned by ORCHESTRA RĪGA to create Winter Portraits, a contemporary concert program inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen. Her composition Kas Var Dziesmas Izdziedāt for mixed choir and orchestra premiered at the Ordway Performing Arts Center in Minneapolis during the XV Latvian Song and Dance Festival in the United States. Her recent commissions also include Introspection, written for concert kokle and commissioned by Latvian kokle artist Līga Griķe.

Her current work continues to explore the intersections of cultural memory, identity, imagination, and contemporary musical expression. She is preparing Impressions of an Era, a collaborative large-ensemble project with saxophonist and composer Toms Rudzinskis and the Latvian Radio Big Band, while continuing to develop new music across vocal, chamber, and large-ensemble settings.

For Jēkabsone, music is a space where tradition, imagination, and human connection coexist, a constantly evolving world guided by curiosity, storytelling, and the endless possibilities of sound.

Awards & Honors:

Latvian Recording Award “Zelta Mikrofons” – Nominee, Best Folk and World Music Album for Dziesmu Kamoliņš / Garland of Songs (2026)

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Music/Sound (2025)

Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards, ASCAP Foundation – Honorable Mention for the big band composition Kaķpēdiņas/Antennaria (2024)

Latvian Grand Music Award – New Artist of the Year 2022 (2023)

Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition – Third Prize (2021)

2021 – The Jazz Gallery Residency Commission Grant – Recipient (2021)

Big Band Composition Competition for Young Baltic Composers – Finalist (2020)

International Ella Fitzgerald Voice Competition – Third Prize (2019)

Latvian Radio Klasika 3 Annual Concert Award – Nominee (2019)

2017 – Mid-Atlantic Jazz Voice Competition – Second Prize (2017)

Montreux Shure Jazz Voice Competition, Switzerland – First Prize / Grand Prix (2016)

Latvian Recording Award “Zelta Mikrofons” – Nominated for Best Concert Recording and Best Debut with Electric Combo (2015)

Selected Performances:

Stowe Jazz Festival, Stowe, VT – with Ilona Kudina’s BALTIC TRANSIT (2026)

NoMad Jazz Festival, Madison Square Park, NYC – Searching for a Song(2025)

Blues Alley, Washington, DC – Arta Jēkabsone Quartet(2025)

The Jazz Gallery, NYC – multiple original projects and performances (2018–2025)

Latvian Song and Dance Festival in Canada – Toronto, Canada (2019, 2024)

Concert Hall “Latvija” – Impressions of an Era with Toms Rudzinskis & Ventspils Big Band (2023)

Mezzrow, NYC – with Aaron Parks (2023)

Arta Jēkabsone Solo Concert Tours supported by Latvian American Cultural Organization TILTS  –United States & Canada (2023–2025)

Arta Jēkabsone Quartet – Iceland Tour, including Harpa Reykjavík (2023)

Arta Jēkabsone Quartet – European Tour – Spain, Czech Republic, Germany & Austria (2022)

NYC Jazz Winterfest – with Samir LanGus band (2022)

BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival – with Samir LanGus (2021)

Nikolaisaal Potsdam – The Voice in Concert (2020)

ORCHESTRA RĪGA – Džezā Tikai Meitenes (2019)

Latvian Radio House 1st studio – Arta Jēkabsone & Friends concert “Reflections”

Arta Jēkabsone Quintet – Light Baltic States Tour (2018)

Arta Jēkabsone & Erik Leuthäuser – Yesterday Still Lies Between the Floorboards Album Release Tour (2018)

Enjoy Jazz Festival (2018)

Montreux Jazz Festival – Arta Jēkabsone Quintet (2017)

Jazzkukko Festival, Finland (2017, 2018)

Bern Jazz Festival – with Nick Dunston Quartet (2016)

Rīgas Ritmi – with Funk band Bunch of Gentleman (2015)

Klaipėda Castle Jazz Festival – with Sheila Ray Charles (2014)

Klaipėda Sea Festival – with Bunch of Gentlemen (2013)

Artist Residencies:

Tofte Lake Center Artist Residency – Minnesota (September 3–9, 2025)

The Church Artist Residency – Sag Harbor, NY (May 2–22, 2024)

The Jazz Gallery Residency Commission – New York, NY (2021–2022)

Education:

Riga Cathedral Choir School – Jazz and Contemporary Music Department (2011– 2015)
Studied with Latvian jazz vocalist Inga Bērziņa

The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music (2015)
Full President’s Scholarship; studies with Janet Lawson, Reggie Workman, Billy Harper, Andy Milne, among others

The New School – Arts Management and Entrepreneurship Program (2018–2020)

Teaching:

The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, New York, NY – Rhythm Class, Part-time Faculty (Fall 2026 –)

New York City Music Conservatory, New York, NY – Vocal Coach (Spring 2023 – Spring 2025)

My Music Match, LLC, Miami, FL – Vocal Coach (Summer 2020 –)