Sara Serpa’s distinctive new trio presents a contemporary approach in writing for the voice, challenging traditional roles and highlighting pristine textures in jazz and improvisational music. Never losing track of the common bond that brings these musicians together, Serpa features two extremely innovative improvisers, Erik Friedlander and Ingrid Laubrock, who have a precise sound and particular musical personalities. Collectively, they create a detailed and exposed portrait of her musical world, featuring wordless compositions and texts by Virginia Woolf, Luce Irigaray and Ruy Bello in concert echoing the movement of people and art across borders central to the Museum’s current exhibition The Sassoons.
A native of Lisbon, Portugal, Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, and improviser, who through her practice and performance, explores the use of the voice as an instrument. Serpa has been working in the field of jazz and improvised and experimental music since moving to New York in 2008. Described by the New York Times as “a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook,” and by JazzTimes magazine as “a master of wordless landscapes,” Serpa started her recording and performing career with jazz luminaries such as Grammy-nominated pianist, Danilo Perez, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow pianist, Ran Blake, and Greg Osby. Serpa was voted 2020 NPR Jazz Vocalist, Rising Star-Female Vocalist 2019 by the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll, and teaches at The New School. Serpa is a 2022 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow, and a recipient of the 2022 Aaron Copland Recording Fund, 2021 USArtists Grant from Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts, and 2021 Herb Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Composition. Serpa has been active in gender equity in music and is the co-founder (along with fellow musician Jen Shyu) of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³), an organization created to empower and elevate women and non-binary musicians.
photo of Sara by Ebru Yildiz