Léah Kline

is an accomplished stage performer who has enjoyed the privilege of performing in virtually every field of entertainment. Equally at ease before an audience of 2,000 as with one of 30, she has entertained audiences in Europe, Asia, and the US. As a singer, Léah is noted for her personal delivery and phrasing of songs paying great respect to the meaning of the lyrics. Particularly well received for her vivacious stage presence and clear melodic tones, her phrasing and interpretation has earned favorable attention from jazz fans. She currently resides in Amsterdam, where she enjoys a full performing and teaching schedule. She is a welcome vocalist at many fine theaters, jazz festivals and jazz clubs in Germany, Holland and France and performs regularly with either her own group or as a guest singer in diverse settings ranging from trios to 17 piece Big Bands. She is a member of the Jazz Vocal Coalition (LA), Cabaret West, Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity Association, BUMA/STEMRA and SENA. Léah's music study began in a church bell choir (notes A, Ab, B and Bb), choir, chorus, chamber singer groups, musicals and high school music theory classes. She credits her sense of rhythm and timing to her dance training and learning to play the congas from "Hakim" who accompanied the modern dance classes there. Léah graduated early from North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem, NC) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Modern Dance and began her career by choreographing, dancing, acting and singing around the Washington D.C. area. After landing a small role in a feature film (Patriot Games), Léah decided to move to Los Angeles where she worked like mad to dance, sing and act! After an earthquake and a physical accident prevented her from dancing for 6 months, she took a USO tour of Europe as a singer and began to seriously consider a much longer career as a vocalist. Listening exclusively to Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Frank Sinatra and Helen Merrill CDs, she committed to memory, in 6 months time, 150 Jazz standards. She sat in at local clubs and learned the trade of jazz singing one night at a time. She studied the Bel Canto technique with Robert Edwards and established herself by 1996 in the Los Angeles Jazz scene. Here she worked with pianists Tamir Hendelman and John Rangel. This was also the beginning of her "Jazz Cabaret" performances - jazz and musical theater repertoire threaded together with a theme, conversation, and backed by a jazz trio or quartet instead of the traditional single pianist. (Debut CD Playground Jan, 2004. ). Seabourn cruise lines invited Léah as a guest artist and master of ceremonies to perform these shows to International audiences in the Far East (winters1996-1999). Léah moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2000 to "explore the European music scene" and performed in an original musical production of 'There's no Business Like Show Business', the life story of Irving Berlin and his music (learning Dutch along the way). Léah was selected to participate in The Ann Burton Tribute, worked with the Glenn Miller Memorial Orchestra under the direction of Gert Jan van den Dolder; performed in the Joop van den Ende productions '42nd Street' 2001 and 'Musicals in Ahoy' 2002, and toured Holland's theaters with her Jazz Cabaret shows 2003-2005. She placed 4th in the Nederlandse Jazz Vocalist Competition 2005, has been included in a book The Jazz Singers, by jazz critic Scott Yanow (release date in 2007). She co-hosted with Hans Frijlling, a local radio program in Amstelveen; the Jazz Corner. She further explores her musical expression as a soloist in free improvisation projects, with Big Bands. She now adds "lyricist" to her skills writing songs with jazz pianist Dirk Balthaus and their new groove band JuzzFlirtin. Her current album with JuzzFlirtin (May 2007) is almost all original material and any groovified New American Songbook .