RNCM Big Band with Sara Dowling (vocals) at RNCM
Johnny James, Managing Editor
This June, the RNCM welcomes back jazz singer Sara Dowling for a one-off performance with the RNCM Big Band.
Voted Best Vocalist in the British Jazz Awards 2019, Sara Dowling is fast gaining fame as one of the most talented jazz singers in the UK. With Palestinian and Irish heritage, she first trained as a cellist at Chetham’s School of Music and the RNCM, before emerging not only as a powerful jazz vocalist but also a prolific composer of songs for the music industry’s most iconic publishing companies, including EMI, Sony and Warner.
Finding influence in Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan, Dowling is loved for her vibrant fusion of nostalgic classical harmonies and American post-bop rhythms of the late 1960s, where interplay and improvisation are at the heart of the performance. Across her career so far, she’s shared the stage with everyone from Ronnie Scott’s All Star Band to Welsh jazz singer Ian Shaw, and performed at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals in the UK and Europe.
Following such performances, Dowling has been garlanded with praise for the burning conviction with which she approaches singing, her irresistible communicative power, and her masterful musicality. Her recorded output is no less acclaimed, with Jazz In Europe describing her last album, From Shadows Into Light, as “a work of sheer musicality and craftsmanship.”
It’s a timeless kind of style that Dowling brings to both her covers of standards and her original tunes, and yet it is also a style that is her own, one that – like all great singers – has developed and flourished as part of a dedicated musical journey. To come full circle, where this journey began, must be a special moment for Dowling, and no doubt it’ll be a special moment for all in attendance at the RNCM on 27 June.
