Hailing from South Korea, Song Yi Jeon is a singer and composer who deftly combines modern jazz harmony and odd time signatures with singable melodies that instantly catch the ear of the listener. Song Yi showed creative promise from an early age when she starting with Piano, Korean traditional singing, Korean traditional percussion, and drawing.

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She studied classical composition at the University of Music and Fine Art in Graz, Austria and Jazz vocals at the Music University in Basel, Switzerland and Berklee
College of Music in Boston, USA where she developing her unique sound. Through her background in classical composition, she uses her understanding of harmonic structure to create incomparable improvisations.

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Song Yi's music is heavily influenced by instrumental Jazz Music, and her refined compositions have a clear musical direction with her signature 'east meets west' sound.

 

In 2013, as the inaugural Quincy Jones CJ&E fellow, she studied at the Berklee College of Music where she was also awarded the Billboard Endowed Award. Her teachers include many major artists including Lisa Thorson, Guillermo Klein, Jorge Rossy, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Tiger Okoshi and George Garzone amongst others.

 

Song Yi made her Blue Note debut in New York to great acclaim with her quintet, Song Yi Jeon Quintet. Her quintet has also played at many clubs/festivals including the Jazz Gallery, the Falcoln, the Bitter End, Drom, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston, Isabella Steward Garden, Regattabar Courtyard Boston, Basel Clubfestival, Off Beat Jazzfestival Basel, Langnau Jazz festival and the Next Generation Jazz Festival Monterey.

 

In 2018, Song Yi released her first album “Movement of Lives” with her Quintet, featuring Vitor Goncalves, Kenji Herbert, Peter Slavov, Jongkuk Kim and featuring Rogerio Boccato at the Jazz Gallery in NYC.

 

After she moved to Switzerland, she participated in an emerging artist program FOCUSYEAR at the Basel Jazzcampus, performed with Ambrose Akinmusire, Django Bates, John Hollenbeck, Julian Lage, Billy Childs, Guillermo Klein, Wolfgang Muthspiel, and many more. 

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Song Yi was recently selected to be part of Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor & Protége 23-24, and as a Music Protégé she will be working closely with five-time Grammy Winner Ms Dianne Reeves.