Cécile McLorin Salvant is the winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition.

She is a young French-American jazz singer, born and raised in Miami of a French mother and a Haitian father and started piano studies at 5 and choir and lyrical at 8 with private instructors and at the University of Miami. After three years at the Aix-en-Provence Conservatory for jazz, classical and baroque music, Cecile is pursuing her studies in New York.

Known for her own unique interpretation of standard jazz classics and blues, as well as rare jazz compositions, Cécile enjoys growing popularity in Europe and in the United States where she has performed in many concerts and festivals accompanied by renowned musicians like Jean-Francois Bonnel, Rodney Whitaker, Dan Nimmer, as a guest of Wynton Marsalis ...

Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times:“…She was funny and dire and idiosyncratic, and never cutesy-flirty or mannered-hip…As she sang her less-than-obvious set choices … she stamped out the lines with authority and power and a bit of outrageousness, as if they were home truths, not history assignments. She zeroed in on notes, sang at crawling tempos more than once, made her voice into a creaking door, a fog..., then a laser. She stayed on pitch and grew unnervingly quiet in the end verses of the Bessie Smith, turning the song, about refusing a rough man’s advances, into an extravagant story. She put the house band’s players at ease, keeping close watch over solos...She seemed fresh, but also as if she had decided long ago that she was an artist."

The magazine Paris Hot Club has called a “true and remarkable jazz singer…a young jazz prodigy”.

Cécile has performed in numerous festivals like Vienne, Ascona, Whitley Bay, Montauban, Foix and will be performing this year at the Lincoln Center, the Chicago Symphony Center, Festival Spoleto USA... ...

Cécile McLorin Salvant a reçu à Washington le premier prix du concours international de Jazz Vocal Thelonious Monk 2010.

C’est une  jeune chanteuse de jazz franco-américaine qui est née et a grandi à Miami en Floride. Elle a débuté des études de piano à l’âge de 5 ans et de chant choral et lyrique dès 8 ans. Après trois ans de jazz et de chant lyrique et baroque au Conservatoire de Musique d’Aix-en-Provence, Cécile poursuit actuellement ses études musicales à New York.

Connue pour son interprétation originale des standards, mais également pour celle de morceaux du répertoire de jazz rares et peu enregistrés, Cécile jouit d’une  popularité croissante en Europe et aux Etats-Unis où elle se produit accompagnée par des musiciens de renommée comme Jean-François Bonnel, Rodney Whitaker, Dan Nimmer, invitée de Wynton Marsalis ...

Yves Sportis de Jazz Hot a écrit:«… l’aisance et l’aplomb qui révèlent instantanément le talent... aucune intonation, nuance, aucun accent, n’a semblé être négligé, une sorte de perfection naturelle de forme et de voix qu’on ne trouve que dans la culture possédée par une artiste… » et Alex Dutilh de France Musique:« …côté naturel, la belle est désarmante. Le genre de technique vocale tellement éblouissante qu'elle annihile tout sentiment d'effort, donc de présence d'une technique. Précision des attaques, justesse, sautes de registre, chaleur du timbre, mise en place instinctive… ».

She graduated from Coral Reef International Baccalaureate Academy in 2007 where she received the highly prestigious National Achievement Scholarship. After three years of classical, baroque and jazz at the Music Conservatory of Aix-en-Provence in France, she is currently pursuing her music studies in New York. Cecile is the first place winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International vocal jazz competition.