Lauren Kinsella is an award-winning Jazz FM vocalist of the year, known as having ‘embraced an entirely new conception of vocal improvisation, touching on various traditions but also connected to the avant garde’ (The History of European Jazz).
Snowpoet, her band with multi-instrumentalist Chris Hyson, released Thought You Knew on Edition Records and was hailed by National Public Radio (USA) as one of the best albums of 2018. Their music regularly features on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 6 and RTE Lyric FM. Their next album is set for release in March 2021.
As a soloist, collaborator and band leader, she has performed worldwide at several European Festivals including Unerhört Jazz (Switzerland), InJazz (Netherlands), Cool Britannia (Vienna), Klaeng (Cologne), Down With Jazz (Ireland), Ankara International Music Festival (Istanbul), 12 Points (Porto), Dublin Literary Festival (Ireland), European Jazznights (Oslo), Jazzy Colours (Paris), Belfast Literary Festival (UK), Südtirol Jazz Festival (Italy), Cardiff Poetry Festival (Wales), Galway Jazz Festival (Ireland), Songlines Encounters and the London Jazz Festival (UK).
Awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship (2017) she has performed with Tom Challenger, Dave Smith, Henry Lowther, Ruth Goller, Steve Beresford, Simon Jermyn, Matthew Jacobson, Laura Jurd, Liam Noble, Chris Batchelor, Phil Minton, Kit Downes, Julian Siegel, Elliot Galvin, Elias Stemeseder, Yves Roberts, Attila Csihar, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders, Ingrid Laubrock, Hannah Marshall, Mark Lockheart, Hans Hassler, Olie Brice, Cleveland Watkiss, James Maddren, Julie Kjaer, Robin Finker, Josh Arcoleo, Matthew Halpin and many more.
Kinsella also collaborates with film composers, contemporary classical composers and writers, exploring the role of the voice in varying performance contexts including Cherry Smyth, Harry Escott, Ed Bennett and Sally O’Reilly.
Originally born in Dublin, Kinsella completed her masters at the Royal Academy of Music in 2013. There she was awarded the Gershon Ellenbogen / Maccabaen Award and The Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize leading to the release of Blue-Eyed Hawk’s Under the Moon (Edition Records) which was awarded Best Jazz Album in the Irish Times Ticket Awards.
Photo by Aga Tomaszek