Judy Niemack

Judy Niemack ( born March 11, 1954 in Pasadena (California), today Niemack - Prins ) is an American jazz singer.

Life and work

Niemack joined with seven years in the church choir; during high school, she sang in various vocal groups such as Chamber Choir, Madrigal Choir, musicals, folk and rock bands as well as in a vocal jazz quartet. She studied first at Pasadena City College and then at the New England Conservatory classical singing, then to take by Warne Marsh lessons in jazz improvisation. In 1977 she went as a jazz singer in New York City, where she performed, among others, Dave Brubeck, Ray Drummond and Kirk Nurock.

On the Jazz Festival Pisa in 1982 her international career, which she then continued in almost all European countries and in Canada, Japan and the Philippines began. On their tour of Japan, she was by Ray Drummond, accompanied Tootie Heath and Ronnie Mathews. She has recorded with Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Peter Herbolzheimer, Mal Waldron, Kenny Barron, Toots Thielemans, Erik Friedlander, Fred Hersch, David Friedman, Hein van de Geyn, Roger Vanhaverbeke and Eddie Gomez. She has also collaborated with the WDR Big Band Cologne, with Jim McNeely, the hr- Bigband and the RIAS Big Band Berlin.

After jazz educational activities at several U.S. American colleges and universities Niemack taught from 1993 at the Jazz Faculty of the Royal Conservatories of Antwerp and The Hague. In 1994 she was a professor of jazz singing at the Conservatory in Brussels. In 1995 she was appointed as a professor at the Academy of Music " Hanns Eisler" in Berlin ( it was then the first professor of jazz singing in Germany ). Today, she teaches at the Jazz Institute Berlin.

Niemack is married to the Belgian guitarist Jeanfrançois Prins, with which it also occurs.