About Emily Lanier

An amazing, bright, new talent on the jazz scene, Emily Lanier gathered quite a fan base in the VT/NH Upper Valley region staring in 2006. Believe it or not, singing with a jazz band was her “mid-life crisis”. Blessed with a natural vocal talent, the desire to sing, and a passion for jazz, but having virtually no formal vocal training or experience with a band, Emily searched the Internet for a jazz coach in 2004 and connected with Fred Haas. Hass, (Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth College, who teaches Jazz Improvisation, Jazz History, Music Theory, Saxophone, Jazz Piano and directs several jazz combos) coached her on and off for a several months and refined her ability to interpret the jazz aura. He also introduced her to Interplay Jazz Camp – an incredible week of music for teens and adults held in Woodstock, VT each summer. Through Interplay, Emily has worked with outstanding international jazz vocalists Shelia Jordon, Karrin Allyson, Dena DeRose, Chris Humphrey, and Laurel Masse (former lead singer and co-founder of The Manhattan Transfer), as well as lyric-mezzo soprano Ellen Nordstrom-Baer. In addition to Interplay, in the summer of 2008, Emily also attended the infamous Jamie Aeberosld Jazz Camp in Louisville, KY. There, she worked with Rosanna Eckert (New York Voices European tour '08), Jerry Tolson, Bill Overton, as well as Jamie Aebersold, himself.

In 2006, Emily achieved her goal when she answered a classified ad for a jazz vocalist with the newly forming band A New Kind of Blue. The talented quartet soon began to get more gigs then they could handle (and that the guys wanted to play), so in 2007, Emily formed a second group, The Emily Lanier Jazz Ensemble - a rotating pool of some of the Upper Valley and New England area’s most talented jazz musicians.

Besides the outstanding musicians Emily played with regularly in the Upper Valley (see the EL Jazz Ensemble page for the list), Emily has also worked and performed with
Gene Bertoncini, Matt Wilson, Steve Davis, Freddie Bryant, Michael Zsoldos, Dave Clark, John Carlson,  George Voland, Eugene Friesen, Armen Donelian, Bob Hallahan, John Schwartzberg, Mark Kross, Miro Sprague, Jamie Aebersold and Fred Haas

In the summer of 2010, Emily relocated to the Dallas TX area and just as she began perfomring again, found out another move was in the plans. So, in the late fall of 2011, she and her family moved again ... to the Capital District of NY. Once settled, she performed there on and off, but one more move came in 2017.  She now lives in Winston-Salem, NC with her wonderfully supportive husband and works, full-time, in the field of cancer research. Emily also sings regularly at her church, St Leo's, and is availble for hire for weddings, funerals and special events. In 2005, while in at St. Denis Parish in Hanover, NH, she recorded the CD "Angels' Song" (a peaceful moment in the spirit of Christmas) with her women's vocal trio Les Rossignols