BIO | GABRIELA MARTINA

Musician, educator, entrepreneur

Gabriela Martina is a musician, educator and entrepreneur who grew up in Switzerland. She lived and worked in the USA (Boston and New York) for 13 years, learning from the people who made jazz the important art form it is today. Martina's album 'Homage to Grämlis' (2023) is a tribute to the farm Grämlis in the Swiss Alps where she grew up. In autumn 2021, Martina had the great honor of receiving the Art and Culture Prize from the Art and Culture Commission Horw, her hometown in Switzerland. She also received the DIPLÔME DE MÉDAILLE DE VERMEIL of the lauréats Arts-Sciences-Lettres, 2020, in Paris (France). Her album No White Shoes, released in 2016 and rated four stars by DownBeat, was an important step on the singer's path to becoming a musician of the 21st century.

Martina has had the opportunity to perform and collaborate with musicians such as Meshell Ndegeocello, Jack DeJohnette and Angelique Kidjo. She has recorded with veteran drummer J.R. Robinson and was a semi-finalist in the Shure Vocal Competition at the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival, where she performed with guitarist Lee Ritenour's band. Martina released a critically acclaimed EP, Curiosity (2010), which included her original song ‘Ain't Nobody’, which was a finalist in the 2012 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards. Martina had her own booking agency called Red Velvet Sounds in the US for several years and co-founded and curated the free improv concert series In Momentum.  In June 2019, she took part in the Central Switzerland Yodeling Festival and graduated with top marks. She has also performed at concert venues such as the Berklee Performance Center, Jordan Hall, International Tennis Hall of Fame, State House of Flags, and Scullers Jazz Club.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Gabriela Martina holds a bachelor's degree from Berklee College of Music and a master's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Donna McElroy, Jason Moran, Cecil McBee, Miguel Zenon, Frank Carlberg, Dominique Eade, Ken Schaphorst and Jerry Bergonzi, among many others.

She is enrolled now in the DAS Instrumental/vocal pedagogy compact at HSLU Luzern (CH) starting in spring of 2025.

WORK EXPERIENCE AS

MUSIC EDUCATOR

Codarts Rotterdam, faculty at muziektheater, Rotterdam (NL)                      2022 - 2023

Berklee College of Music, Aspire Music Performance Intensive Program, (US)   2015 - present

Berklee College of Music, voice faculty member, Boston, MA (US)              Aug - Dec 2016

Concord Conservatory of Music, youth chorus director and voice instructor, Concord(US)                                           2017 - 2020

Brimmer & May School, voice instructor, Chestnut Hill, MA (US)                      2013 - 2016

Voice- and music faculty at several music institutions in Boston/New York (US)                2008 - 2016

Vocal Institute, Zürich (CH)                                                                       2005 - 2008

GABRIELA MARTINA ENSEMBLE

This ensemble has been founded at the time Gabriela Martina went to Berklee and it exists for already more than 15 years.

Gabriela just released her album ‘STATES’ that came out in May 2024 and she is booking tours for that right now. Also is she currently working on her newest album (name still to be decided) to be released hopefully in 2025. 

Her previously recorded album ‘Homage to Grämlis’ fuses Swiss traditional folk music with diverse musical genres from the United States. Gabriela Martina has a discography with over 12 records and 5 of them are all original music.

Gabriela Martina had the honor of performing in concert venues such as the Berklee Performance Center, Jordan Hall, International Tennis Hall of Fame, State House of Flags, Scullers Jazz Club, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and many others.  The musicians are Kyle Miles (bass), Vancil Cooper (drums), Ben Rosenblum (accordion), Maxim Lubarsky (piano), Jussi Reijonen (guitar) and they all have their own musical careers with very impressive resumes.

The band members have performed with musicians such as: Hamilton touring band, Marcus Strickland, Keyon Harrold, Meshell Ndegeocello, Steeve Gett, Patrice Rushen, Greg Osby, Terri Lynn Carrington  Queen Latifah,  Nick Carter (BackstreetBoys), Lalah Hathaway and played at: Appel Room at Lincoln Center, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Ravinia, the Library of Congress and Himawari-No-Sato Concert Hall in Yokohama.

MAXIM LUBARSKY & GABRIELA MARTINA DUO

Explorations in sound

Gabriela Martina (CH) and Maxim Lubarsky (UA) have been playing together in different musical settings since 2009 and formed this duo officially back in 2019. They both are vivid performers who seek to approach music as a whole, defying any specific style or genre.

WEBSITE

NEWEST PROJECT

together with BRUNO SPOERRI

Project still in progress together with Swiss Music legend Bruno Spoerri

http://www.computerjazz.ch/

With roots in jazz/folk music, my experiences in the EU/USA and my creative center in Switzerland, I would like to focus more on the voice and the interplay with the possibilities of electronics, paired with theatrical performance.

Mime Time is a program, put together by Bruno Spoerri and myself, where I get to know techniques and tools for live performances and try to revive forgotten techniques of interactive electronic improvisation with new means.