Photo credit: Megan Kruitbosch
Lea Grant is a jazz singer, songwriter and music educator.
Lea Grant is a dedicated voice teacher, singer, songwriter and artist. Over the years she has had the privilege of singing with award-winning ensembles, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and International Orange Chorale of San Francisco. She sang soprano in the chorus of the San Francisco Lyric Opera Company, Repertory Opera Company of Los Angeles, Casa Italiana and in other community opera productions. She has also written original music, which she has performed extensively throughout the Bay Area and recorded in a full-length album and an EP as songwriter, keyboard player and front woman. Most recently, she has been gigging as a jazz singer, performing standards and developing her chops as a scat singer.
Ms. Grant began formal vocal training in 1998, and since then has worked hard to master and understand the mechanics of healthy, genre-flexible singing. She holds a Master of Jazz Studies degree from the University of North Texas, where she served as a Teaching Fellow and trained under the excellent jazz vocalist, Rosana Eckert. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music in 2004. Lea has also taken lessons with Grammy Award-winning vocalist Sara Gazarek, and Grammy nominated vocalist Kate McGarry.
As a performer and teacher of CCM styles, Lea has sought out professional development that enhances her understanding of those styles at the level of vocal function. She has completed levels I and II of Somatic VoiceworkTM training with founder Jeanie LoVetri. As per the SVW website, “Somatic VoiceworkTM The LoVetri Method is an organized method of vocal training for Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) styles, (those styles that used to be called “non- classical”) based upon somatic (physical) awareness and aural discernment.” SVW teaches healthy belting, singing with mixed voice, and cross-training to be able to sing at a professional level in a variety of different styles.
Lea continues to avidly study vocal pedagogy in the service of providing the highest quality voice instruction to her students. She teaches pop, jazz, classical, musical theater (including belting) and gospel. For the past 18 years Lea has been working as a singing teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Kansas City giving private lessons and workshops. Her students range from complete beginners to college music majors, singer-songwriters, worship leaders, choristers, jazz vocalists and musical theater singers of all ages and backgrounds.
Lea is also a speech-language pathology clinical fellow and completed a 4 month clinical practicum at The Kansas Voice Center. In her role as a graduate student clinician, she contributed to the evaluation and treatment of patients with a wide variety of voice and upper airway disorders.
"She is a clever, brilliant songwriter who takes elements of pop and steers them far away from their safe, mild waters, and melds them with layers of jazz, blues, and other more progressive elements, to create something altogether her own. And the intricate beauty of her voice is something to behold." - Brendan Getzell, The Hotel Utah
"Lea’s original compositions are part jazz, part folk-rock, with hints of Regina Spektor and Tori Amos. Her crystal clear voice, however, is completely her own, the product of natural talent honed by years of operatic training.” - Ann Lam, Untapped Cities Blog
Lea Grant is a dedicated voice teacher, singer, songwriter and artist. Over the years she has had the privilege of singing with award-winning ensembles, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and International Orange Chorale of San Francisco. She sang soprano in the chorus of the San Francisco Lyric Opera Company, Repertory Opera Company of Los Angeles, Casa Italiana and in other community opera productions. She has also written original music, which she has performed extensively throughout the Bay Area and recorded in a full-length album and an EP as songwriter, keyboard player and front woman. Most recently, she has been gigging as a jazz singer, performing standards and developing her chops as a scat singer.
Ms. Grant began formal vocal training in 1998, and since then has worked hard to master and understand the mechanics of healthy, genre-flexible singing. She holds a Master of Jazz Studies degree from the University of North Texas, where she served as a Teaching Fellow and trained under the excellent jazz vocalist, Rosana Eckert. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music in 2004. Lea has also taken lessons with Grammy Award-winning vocalist Sara Gazarek, and Grammy nominated vocalist Kate McGarry.
As a performer and teacher of CCM styles, Lea has sought out professional development that enhances her understanding of those styles at the level of vocal function. She has completed levels I and II of Somatic VoiceworkTM training with founder Jeanie LoVetri. As per the SVW website, “Somatic VoiceworkTM The LoVetri Method is an organized method of vocal training for Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) styles, (those styles that used to be called “non- classical”) based upon somatic (physical) awareness and aural discernment.” SVW teaches healthy belting, singing with mixed voice, and cross-training to be able to sing at a professional level in a variety of different styles.
Lea continues to avidly study vocal pedagogy in the service of providing the highest quality voice instruction to her students. She teaches pop, jazz, classical, musical theater (including belting) and gospel. For the past 18 years Lea has been working as a singing teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Kansas City giving private lessons and workshops. Her students range from complete beginners to college music majors, singer-songwriters, worship leaders, choristers, jazz vocalists and musical theater singers of all ages and backgrounds.
Lea is also a speech-language pathology clinical fellow and completed a 4 month clinical practicum at The Kansas Voice Center. In her role as a graduate student clinician, she contributed to the evaluation and treatment of patients with a wide variety of voice and upper airway disorders.
"She is a clever, brilliant songwriter who takes elements of pop and steers them far away from their safe, mild waters, and melds them with layers of jazz, blues, and other more progressive elements, to create something altogether her own. And the intricate beauty of her voice is something to behold." - Brendan Getzell, The Hotel Utah
"Lea’s original compositions are part jazz, part folk-rock, with hints of Regina Spektor and Tori Amos. Her crystal clear voice, however, is completely her own, the product of natural talent honed by years of operatic training.” - Ann Lam, Untapped Cities Blog
