MONTREAL — Teenage jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky’s, left, meteoric career has reached yet another high note with her nomination for two Juno music awards, including best new artist of the year.
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MONTREAL — Teenage jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky’s meteoric
career has reached yet another high note with her nomination for two
Juno music awards, including best new artist of the year.
Yanofsky, who turned 15 on Feb. 8, is also nominated for best vocal jazz album for her debut Ella… Of Thee I Swing, a CD/DVD package capturing her sold-out show, a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, in Montreal last October.
The Junos will be held on March 28 at Vancouver’s General Motors Place.
“I totally flipped out when I heard I was nominated,” Yanofsky said. “I really, really appreciate just getting the nomination. It’s such a great accomplishment that winning becomes almost irrelevant. I can’t say how happy I am.”
Yanofsky is competing with Crystal Shawanda, Jessie Farrell, Kreesha Turner and Lights for the new artist prize, and recordings by Diana Panton, Elizabeth Shepherd, Molly Johnson and Yvette Tollar for the album award.
Yanofsky’s precocious talent, both as a singer and stage presence, first came to public attention when as an 11-year-old she performed with her father Richard’s band Past Their Prime-Time Players at the Battle of the Bands, a fundraiser for Maimonides Geriatric Centre in Montreal.
The following year, she bowled over the public when she was the opening outdoor act at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the youngest performer to headline her own show in the festival’s 29-year history.
Last summer, she had four sold-out concerts, and another was presented in October because of the demand, which became the basis for the nominated album.
Her parents, Richard and Elyssa, say she has been singing since she could speak and that by age 10, her tastes had gravitated to classical jazz, especially the songs of the legendary Fitzgerald. She was soon belting out songs such as It Don’t Mean a Thing and A Tisket, A Tasket, and she became particularly adept at scatting.
Her voice has been described as mature well beyond her years – both powerful and velvety – and she astonishes audiences with her confidence and poise.
Yanofsky said she has wanted to be a singer for as long as she can remember and sees her future as a singer “whether in a restaurant or before a global audience.”
She insists she’s having fun, and wouldn’t be devoting herself to singing in the way she does if she wasn’t.
“It’s fabulous the way things are turning out,” she said, adding that she plans to “follow the road wherever it leads.”
She said she’s often asked if she’s missing out on doing the things other young people do, such as going to parties and hanging out with friends.
“I still do those things. I just sing as well,” said Yanofsky, who appears to have remained remarkably humble.
The Grade 9 student recognizes she was born with an uncommon ear for song that allowed her to quickly picked up the music her parents liked to play. “My father says I have a photographic memory for music.”
At the same time, Yanofsky stresses that she puts a lot of work into everything she does, and that’s probably why she appears so poised on stage. “I’ve never felt any stage fright or nerves before a performance. I think all the work I put into a song really pays off.”
Yanofsky has performed or collaborated with such stars as Oliver Jones, Céline Dion, Herbie Hancock, Wyclef Jean and Marvin Hamlisch, the latter at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
She has sung the national anthems for the Montreal Canadiens and for the Los Angeles Lakers, and at the CFL Grey Cup game in Montreal in November.
She is also a favourite at community events and headlined at the Hope & Cope 25th anniversary gala in 2006, the Montreal Children’s Hospital fundraiser in 2007 and the 2008 Montreal ORT benefit last fall, to name a few.
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