ABOUT THE SEATTLE-KOBE JAZZ EXCHANGE PROGRAM
The Seattle Kobe Female Jazz Vocal Audition Returns!
Sunday October 13, 2024, 6-9pm @ The Triple Door
More info coming soon!
The Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association is excited to be bringing back its jazz exchange program, which was on hiatus during the pandemic.
Every year since 2000, the winner of the Kobe Jazz Vocalist Queen Contest, held in Kobe’s Shinkaichi neighborhood, the birthplace of Japanese jazz, has visited Seattle to perform. In 2005, the SKSCA launched a reciprocal program: an audition to send two female jazz vocalists from Seattle to perform in Kobe, one adult vocalist and one high school vocalist.
In May 2023, SKSCA sent one of our vocalist participants, Leah Natale, to be a judge in the Shinkaichi Music Street Jazz Vocalist Queen Contest in Kobe, and SKSCA was honored to host the 2023 Jazz Vocalist Queen, Ms. Yuka Misaki, in Seattle for several days of fun events. SKSCA is working with its Kobe partners to restart the audition program in Seattle to send vocalists to Japan as well.
SKSCA’s jazz exchange and incorporating jazz music into other sister city activities has been a beautiful and lively pillar of our sister city relationship for the last twenty-three years. During the sister city 65thanniversary celebrations in both Seattle and Kobe during the Fall of 2022 we featured jazz vocalists, and also during the Suma Yacht Club-Seattle Yacht Club regatta festivities during April of 2023.
DONATING TO SUPPORT THE JAZZ PROGRAM
If you are interested in donating to support our grassroots jazz exchange, please click on our donation link here:
If you are interested in getting involved with the program, please email jazz@sksca.org
2023 SEATTLE-KOBE JAZZ EXCHANGE
In 2023, SKSCA coordinated the visit of Kobe Jazz Vocal Queen Yuka Misaki to Seattle, creating multiple opportunities for her to engage with the Seattle community. This included three major performances and a visit to a local elementary school.
PAST SEATTLE JAZZ AUDITION WINNERS
Jazz Audition Winners
| Year | Adult | High School |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Josephine Howell | Sage Eisenhour |
| 2018 | Alex Baird | Maia Nelson |
| 2017 | Nikki Dee | Tiia Freeman |
| 2016 | LaVon Hardison | Kristina Buno |
| 2015 | Taylor Zickefoose | Alexandra Mountsier |
| 2014 | Jennifer Kienzle | Laura Rosok |
| 2013 | Leah Natale | Sofia Smith |
| 2012 | Nancy Erickson | Taylor Zickefoose |
| 2011 | Jacqueline Tabor | Kelila Gottlieb |
| 2010 | Kelly Eisenhour | Ariel Pocock |
| 2009 | Greta Matassa | Katherine Stuber |
| 2008 | Karen Shivers | Siobhan Bruggers |
| 2007 | Emily Meyer | Jennifer Hoyt |
| 2006 | Gail Pettis | Courtney Fortune |
| 2005 | Kelley Johnson | Isabella du Graf |
2017 Jazz Vocal Competition Winners: Nikki Dee, Adult; Tiia Freeman, High School; Gabriella Green, High School Special Mention; Emma Caroline Baker, Adult Special Mention