"Emotionally powerful encounters… a singing experience that sucks you in like a cyclone, hurtles and lifts you higher and higher…. Compelling…. being in the presence of Sokolov will alter your conception of vocal jazz” — All About Jazz
Latest News
About Lisa
Lisa Sokolov is a frontline New York jazz vocalist, improviser and composer. Known for her pioneering tonal, timberal and expressive range. Her work embraces the best of jazz, new music and soul. Her recordings as leader angel Rodeo, Lazy Afternoon, Presence and A Quiet Thing have all received Best CD of the Year citations and press kudos. Her 2004 release: Presence received 5 stars “Masterpiece” and Best CD of the Year in Downbeat Magazine. The next year she appeared on their “Rising Star” list. DownBeat’s January 2010 issue cites “Presence” on the Best CD’s of the Decade list. She can also be heard singing the Song Cycles of William Parker and Gerry Hemingway. She is presently completing a recording of her choral and chamber vocal work.
Over the years, she has worked with many new music and jazz notables including Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Jeanne Lee, Rashied Ali, Badal Roy, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Dresser, Jimmy Lyons. Irene Schweitzer, Steve McCall, Butch Morris, Gerry Hemmingway, Todd Reynolds, Cameron Brown, Didi Jackson, Hilton Ruiz, Mike Richmond, and Jim McNeely.
Sokolov has performed at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Spoleto Festival, the Kool Jazz Festival, The Stimmen Festival, The Vision Festival, The Havana International Jazz Festival, the Tampere Jazz Happening, The Brisbane Festival, Alice Tully Hall, Symphony Space, The Opera of Lyons, Merkin Hall and many other venues. She recorded on Soul Note, Uneet, Aum, Boxholder, Between the Lines and Laughing Horse Records.
A Full Arts Professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts The Experimental Theater Wing, She is the originator of Embodied VoiceWork, a method used in arts education. music therapy, and human potential work. Her book, “Embodied VoiceWork; Beyond Singing” was released by Barcelona Publishers in March 2020. Sokolov trains artists, therapists and physicians internationally and has led workshops in such widely divergent contexts as trainings for The Big Apple Circus clowns to programs at The Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC. She lectures internationally at universities, institutes and conferences and has led long–term trainings at two institutes in Germany and Switzerland for over 25 years.
As a fourth year cantorial student, Sokolov studies of the improvisational tradition of her lineage. This has opened melodic and rhythmic treasures. Her work as a lay cantor has been featured in a CBS Special, “Sacred Art; Ancient Voices”. Her performances have been broadcast live in concert from The Lyons Opera House, The Havana Jazz Festival and The National Theater in San Jose, Costa Rica. Sokolov has been cited in many books on jazz and on the field of Music Therapy. And has contributed chapters and poetry in several collections.
Embodied Voicework
Imagine standing in a beautiful room.
There is a guide sitting at the piano.
You are standing and you begin to stretch and yawn and allow sounds to roll out of you. The piano begins to match and reflect and support the tones that are coming as you yawn. Before long, you are standing with your feet planted and pressing against the earth.
Your arms are open.
Your heart is open.
Your breath is deep, full and flowing.
Your head is slightly back.
You are singing.
You are really singing.
Full bodied, full feeling,
open,
free flying, shining full soul full singing
Embodied VoiceWork is a method exploring the resources and the power within the process of finding and freeing one’s voice. Through free vocal improvisation each person connects with their bodies, their music, and with others. We understand non-verbal singing as a language. We explore the essentials of this language tone, interval, time, vowel, and consonant. We become located in our bodies, into the tonal world and into time. We begin with solo work and evolve into duet, quartet and large group improvisation.
This work is about listening. Through a series of developmentally sequenced games, we connect into impulse and information in the body.
Participants can expect to be more grounded in their bodies and to improvise and sing more freely and expressively. They will be more fluent in the language of music. Listening skills will be awakened both internally and externally. This work can open individuals to a powerful experience of emotional, energetic and expressive aliveness.
Embodied VoiceWork is a method used in arts education, music therapy, and human potential work.
Workshops in Embodied VoiceWork range from a single 2 hour session, to a full day, to four or five day rounds, or long-term training.
Lisa Sokolov is well known in the fields of music and theater as a innovative singer, composer and teacher. She is also recognized internationally for her pioneering voice work in the field of Music Therapy and Artist education. She is a frequent guest at international festivals and conferences. She has extensive teaching experience as a longtime Professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Experimental Theater Wing, as well as teaching at Institutes internationally for many years.
See the calendar page for upcoming workshop dates.
“When I first walked into Lisa Sokolov’s classroom, I thought I was a “trained” singer, having studied traditional technique for years. But it wasn’t until I experienced her transformative teaching that I truly connected with my voice. Through her imaginative approach, I learned to use my voice as a powerful spiritual instrument, instead of merely a transmitter of nice sounds. Her singular combination of soul, rigor and joy both challenges and embraces her students. I came out the other side a far more open and grounded artist and person. I know many others who were similarly changed by being under tutelage and owe her a well of gratitude as deep as mine.”
Music
Videos
Calendar / Upcoming Events.
-
”As far removed stylistically from the reigning royalty of female jazz vocalists as John Coltrane is from Grover Washington, …exceptionally expressive, dramatic, ecstatic … masterful …stunning, life-affirming …This is jazz vocalizing filled with passion and commitment.” Presence receives five stars ***** “ masterpiece”
— Best of the Year DownBeat Magazine
-
“14th Vision Festival 2009 Saturday evening turned out to be the most consistently thrilling, the biggest surprise of the festival, singer/pianist Lisa Sokolov … Spectacular … intoxicating … Sokolov’s charismatic performance was spellbinding.”
— Ken Weiss JAZZ INSIDE MAGAZINE
-
“A visionary improviser and a strikingly original innovator … Sokolov can truly be said to be pushing the envelope of the jazz idiom into the Post Modern Era.”
— Royal Stokes OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
-
“Sokolov delves into the magical possibilities of the voice and the beauty and mystery of words. A Quiet Thing.., extends the power of her earlier recordings, continuing her progression towards the majestic and ecstatic “silence” of the universe. a musical adventurer: Even when she sings something familiar, she constantly surprises. …ethereal and then down-and-dirty … a master of breath and sound control,. …stunning Sokolov’s performance at Sweet Rhythm last month was dazzlingly instructional, demonstrating the power in her voice and her appealing mix of spontaneity and total control. … powerful… …funky and ever-evolving… breathtaking” Donald Elfman All About Jazz Best of 2009
— Donald Elfman All About Jazz Best of 2009
-
“The dominant strand that runs through the work is the human voice, which features on the bulk of the music, with a brilliantly daring solo performance by Lisa Sokolov standing as a peak in the vast landscape of sounds presented”
THE BEST NEW JAZZ ALBUMS: EDITOR’S CHOICE, FEBRUARY 2021 JAZZWISE
MIGRATIONS OF SILENCE MAKES NY TIMES 10 BEST JAZZ ALBUMS OF 2021
-
“Imagine a singer who can move (sometimes within a single phrase) from the sweetness of Norah Jones to the rasp of Janis Joplin and who can do so while maintaining a strong sense of swing and a probing improvisational focus. Even that, however, doesn’t quite describe the offbeat Sokolov. Listening to her wide-open performance of a program that includes everything from “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” to “Chain of Fools” makes it precisely clear why she has been, for the past two decades, a vital participant in Manhattan’s avant-garde jazz scene. But that’s not to say that “Presence” is a difficult listen. To the contrary, it is filled with fascinating moments, with the sheer out-of-the-box energies of an artist who is shifting and shaping her music in search of ever-new perspectives.”
— LA TIMES
-
“…the beguiling and potent voice of Lisa Sokolov … impassioned singing; extraordinary technique..”
— NEW YORK TIMES
-
“If this isn’t range, I don’t know what is. Sokolov’s voice is huge, able to range in expression from playfully coquettish to snarling blues in the course of a single phrase. She synthesizes mainstream vocal traditions-clearly influenced as much by Nina Simone as Sarah Vaughn-with avant-garde approaches to song, miles away from cookie-cutter versions of standards This is an album brimming with personality and warmth.”
— CADENCE
-
“…a vast pallet of expressive inflections over such a dizzying range of repertoire … visceral …caressing lyrical purity… blows through your soul... Sokolov¹s virtuosity is always at the service of the music, and there's an emotional charge to her improvisations that readily distinguishes her from the self-conscious retro of better-known divas.”
— PLAYBILL
