Kavita Shah
- Museum Members receive a 10% ticket discount
Event Details
Kavita Shah is an award-winning vocalist, composer, and educator whose work is rooted in the jazz tradition while drawing on musical languages from around the world. A native New Yorker, Shah has sung in more than 30 languages and can speak nine, tracing what she calls the hidden songlines between cultures.
Trained first as a classical pianist, Shah grew up performing with the Young People's Chorus of New York City before studying Latin American Studies at Harvard, where her honors research on Afro-Brazilian music won multiple prizes. She went on to earn a Master of Music in Jazz Voice at Manhattan School of Music and was named Downbeat's Best Graduate Jazz Vocalist in 2012.
Shah's debut album VISIONS (2014), co-produced by guitarist Lionel Loueke, established her as a distinctive voice in global jazz. Her 2018 duo album Interplay with bassist François Moutin was nominated for France's Jazz Album of the Year, and her 2023 release Cape Verdean Blues, a tribute to the legendary Cesária Évora, was praised by The New York Times and The Guardian. She was most recently a featured vocalist on NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron's recording Songbook. Her forthcoming jazz quintet album All Roads Lead to Home, featuring guests Miguel Zenón and Steve Wilson, is due in Fall 2026.
Shah has performed at venues and festivals on six continents, including the Kennedy Center, Central Park SummerStage, Blue Note, and Copenhagen Jazz Festival, and has recorded with artists ranging from Sheila Jordan and Mulatu Astatke to Lionel Loueke and Billy Childs.
