Sofia Eugenia Koutsovitis, known professionally as Sofia Rei, is an Argentine vocalist, songwriter, producer, and educator. A classically trained mezzo-soprano, Rei's influences include South American folk styles, jazz, pop, new classical and electronic music. Singing in Spanish, English and Portuguese, her voice was described by The Boston Globe as "possessing a voluptuously full voice, comprehensive command of Latin American rhythms, and encyclopedic knowledge of folkloric forms from Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Uruguay." She was born and raised in Buenos Aires and has been based in New York since 2005.[1]
She is the co-founder of El Colectivo Sur, an arts collective based in New York City that aims to increase public awareness of South American music and assemble diverse communities. She curates its flagship program, the New York City South American Music Festival.[4] She teaches at Berklee College of Music's Global Initiatives, including its itinerant program Berklee Latino directed by Oscar Stagnaro and Javier Limón.[1][5][2]
Early life and education
Rei was born in Buenos Aires to Andres Koutsovitis, a civil engineer, and Maria Cristina Reigadas, a philosopher, professor and researcher. She began to study music at 4, and as a child she sang with vocal groups and school choirs. She began her professional career at nine as a member of the Colón Teatro Children's Choir, and later joined Argentina's National Children's Choir at Teatro Nacional Cervantes.[6]
Rei stopped performing professionally as she started high school at Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires. She discovered punk rock, and started to play the drums, but sang mainly "in the shower." She returned to her formal music education in college as a voice major at the National Conservatory.[7]
As an undergraduate, Rei studied opera with Professor Marta Blanco. In 1997, she joined the National Youth Choir of Argentina (CONAJO) under the direction of Maestro Nestor Zadoff, as a contralto. Her musical interests extended beyond the classical world, however, and she led "a double life" as a "properly educated classical singer during the day and everything else at night." At 19, she was exposed to jazz for the first time and began to learn about vocal improvisation, frequently working with young composers and exploring ways to use her voice as she premiered their new works. Fully immersed in improvised music and jazz, Rei decided to come to the United States to continue her education. In 2001, she moved to Boston to study jazz and improvisation at the New England Conservatory of Music. There, her teachers included Charlie Banacos, Danilo Perez, Dominique Eade, Steve Lacy, Bob Moses and Jerry Bergonzi. Encouraged by one of her teachers, George Russell, Rei began to write her own music. While at the conservatory, she met bassist Jorge Roeder, with whom she frequently collaborates. She graduated from the New England Conservatory with a Master's in Jazz and Improvisation in 2003.[6][8]
Career
In 2003, while living in Boston, Rei, Roeder, and drummer "Coqui" Perez-Albela formed Avantrio to explore the music of Peruvian composers such as Chabuca Granda, Felipe Pinglo and Nicomedes Santa Cruz. The concept was later expanded to include South American folk music, especially from Argentina and Brazil. Rei created the Sofia Koutsovitis Group, an octet which also included Roeder and Coqui Pérez Albela, along with Leo Genovese on piano, Jason Palmer on trumpet, Adam Schneit on alto sax, Dan Blake on soprano and tenor sax, and Richie Barshay on drums.[1]
Rei moved to New York in 2005, and in 2006 toured internationally with the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra. Her debut album, Ojalá, recorded with an octet, was released that same year. Composed of arrangements of her own compositions and songs by Argentine, Brazilian and Cuban composers, the album was named one of the year's Top 10 records by The Jazz Journalist's Association. All About Jazz described it as "eclectic and exciting," and wrote that it "exemplifies the recent trends in Latin Jazz and Latin American music in general, and proves why Sofia Koutsovitis is one of the most versatile and in-demand singers in the New York music scene."[9][10]
In 2008, she sang with Bobby McFerrin in Instant Opera, a piece commissioned by John Zorn, at Carnegie Hall. She also collaborated with Geoff Keezer on his Grammy-nominated album, Aurea.[6]
In 2009, Rei released her second album, Sube Azul. She wrote eight of the twelve tracks which appeared on Sube Azul, and co-produced the album with Roeder. Allmusic wrote: "Koutsovitis employs a sort of South American bohemian aura, using hip cultural landmarks, feelings of love and regret, and an expanded color palette to weave some magical spells over anyone who comes close to her muse...As an individual, she's hard to compare to any predecessor, except her joy and passion could rival Flora Purim, Celia Cruz, or Abbey Lincoln." The album won the Best World Beat Album at the 2009 Independent Music Awards, and Rei was named Best Latin Jazz Vocalist of 2009 by Latin Jazz Corner.[11][8]
In a review of a live performance, the Boston Phoenix wrote: "Koutsovitis's savvy arrangements of originals and covers kept juggling instrumentation and modulated dynamics — soft, rubato introductions segueing into rollicking 6/8 dance themes. There were spellbinding duets with Roeder and Genovese, call-and-response vocals with the band, and two-beat audience clap-alongs. And always those rhythms — from Argentine zamba (not Brazilian samba, she was quick to point out) to Peruvian lando to Argentine chacarera, on which she accompanied herself with the tiny 10-string charango. She explained the Spanish lyrics of loss, hardship, and celebration, but the music didn't need much in the way of translation. The meaning was in her voice and in the sound of this band."[12]
Later in 2009, Rei contributed her vocals to Lova Zhurbin's Niña Dance, a song cycle inspired by the unsolved murders & disappearances of women and young girls in the city of Juárez, Mexico. Commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation, the premiere of the piece took place at Zankel Hall. Rei was chosen as a featured vocalist to premier the work as part of The Jazz Gallery's "New Voices" concert series.[13]
Rei's third album, De Tierra y Oro, was released in 2012. Co-produced by Rei, Roeder and Fab Dupont, it was recorded with electric guitars, loops and drum machines as well as Andean charangos, Paraguayan harps, Colombian marimbas from the Pacific Coast, Argentine bombos, and Peruvian cajones. Named Best World Beat Album at the 2013 Independent Music Awards, Rei described it as a "series of ‘philosophical wanderings’ — songs that draw on a wide range of South American folkloric influences and bracingly modern sounds."[14]
Rei has toured Europe, North and South America performing at international festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, (Washington DC), SF Jazz (San Francisco), the International Jazz en Lima Festival (Peru), Teatro Colsubsidio (Bogotá, Colombia), Wien Konzerthaus (Vienna, Austria), Cité de la Musique (Paris, France), North Sea Jazz (Netherlands), Tom de Festa (Portugal), the Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival (Argentina).[15][citation needed]
Mycale, The Song Project, and other collaborations
Rei is a founding member of Mycale, a New-York based international a cappella quartet with Ayelet Rose Gottlieb (Israel), Malika Zarra (Morocco) and Basya Schechter (United States). Mycale was commissioned by composer John Zorn to arrange, perform and record compositions from his Book of Angels: Masada Book II. Their first album, Mycale: Book of Angels 13 was released on Tzadik Records in early 2010. The second album, Gomory, was released in 2015 on Tzadik with Sara Serpa (Portugal) as a new member of the band.[16]
Additionally, Rei performs with Myra Melford’s Language of Dreams project. She has recorded, performed or collaborated with artists including Frank London, the Klezmatics, Guillermo Klein, Ezequiel Viñao, the Panamerican Symphony Orchestra, Clarice Assad, Curupira, Las Añez, Celso Duarte, Lionel Loueke, John Scofield, Danilo Perez, Susana Baca, Eva Ayllon, Pavel Urkiza, Russ Ferrante, Bob Moses, Steve Lacy, Aquiles Baez, C4 Trio, Aca Seca, Pedrito Martinez and La Bomba de Tiempo.[19]
Teaching
Rei is currently a Professor at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, where she teaches in the areas of Performance and Musicianship, while also serving as the Director of Global Studies. Previously, she was a member of the Voice and Songwriting departments at Berklee College of Music from 2011 to 2014, and was involved with Berklee College of Music's Global Initiatives, contributing to various programs such as its itinerant project Berklee Latino. She has also taught at the New England Conservatory and the New School College of Performing Arts, offering workshops internationally on vocal improvisation and styles training.[20][21]
Media Appearances
Rei appeared unscripted on the program Conan in a remote with Conan O'Brien. She was talking on her phone with her sister when Conan, who was looking for an address while doing a comedy bit of delivering Chinese food, saw her while she was reclining on the open window of her apartment and greeted her. She greeted back, gave him directions and taught him to drink Argentine mate. The video can be found on the official YouTube channel of Conan O'Brien, called Team Coco.[22]
Awards
Jazz Journalists Association Top Ten Records of 2006
Latin Jazz Corner, Best Latin Jazz Vocalist of 2009
Independent Music Award, World Beat, Best Album (2009)
Independent Music Award, World Beat, Best Album (2013)
Independent Music Award, World Beat, Best Song (2013)
Independent Music Award, Best Concept Album (2018)
John Zorn is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". His avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, contemporary, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and world music. Rolling Stone noted that "[alt]hough Zorn has operated almost entirely outside the mainstream, he's gradually asserted himself as one of the most influential musicians of our time".
Masada is a musical group with rotating personnel led by American saxophonist and composer John Zorn since the early 1990s.
Jesse Harris is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and guitarist. He has worked with Norah Jones, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, and Lizz Wright.
Cyro Baptista is a Brazilian-born percussionist in jazz and world music. He creates many of the percussion instruments he plays.
Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City.
Koby Israelite is a multi-instrumentalist composer, producer, songwriter and band leader. He released four albums through John Zorn's Tzadik Records label: Dance of the Idiots (2003), Mood Swings (2005), Orobas: Book of Angels Volume 4 (2006), and Is He Listening? (2009). King Papaya was independently released in 2009 to positive reviews.
Julian Lage is an American guitarist and composer.
Anthony Coleman is an avant-garde jazz pianist. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on Cobra, Kristallnacht, The Big Gundown, Archery, and Spillane and helped push modern Jewish music into the 21st century.
Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 and was named Pianist of the Year for 2023 in the international critics poll of Spanish jazz publication El Intruso. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated the distinctive character of Courvoisier’s art this way: “Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”
50th Birthday Celebration Volume 10 is a live album of improvised music by Yamataka Eye and John Zorn documenting their performance at Tonic in September 2003 as part of John Zorn's month-long 50th Birthday Celebration concert series. Guitarist Fred Frith also appears on one track.
Wu Fei is a virtuoso Chinese American composer, performer, and improviser from Beijing, China. She performs on the Chinese guzheng, an ancient zither with twenty-one strings, as well as sings. She currently resides in Nashville. Wu Fei has composed for a variety of musical genres, including choir, string quartet, chamber ensemble, Balinese gamelan, orchestral, film, and modern dance.
Malika Zarra is a Moroccan singer, composer, and music producer, based in New York City. She is known for singing in Moroccan Arabic, Berber, French, and English. Her music has been on the JazzWeek Top 20 radio chart in world music.
Enigmata is an album of John Zorn compositions performed by Marc Ribot and Trevor Dunn, conducted by Zorn. It was released by Tzadik Records in 2011.
Mycale: Book of Angels Volume 13 is an album by the vocal group Mycale performing compositions from John Zorn's second Masada book, "The Book of Angels". Ayelet Rose Gottlieb stated "We've been told that we have managed to create our own "language" within this a cappella quartet ... the foundation is our music are the compositions of John Zorn, which in this case are melodic tunes, based on the "jewish scale" ... but always with a twist that sends the pieces off to another place, beyond straight klezmer ... on top of that are our arrangements, and text choices."
@ is a studio album by John Zorn and Thurston Moore. It is the first collaborative album by the duo and was recorded in New York City in February 2013 and released by Tzadik Records in September 2013. The album consists of improvised music by Zorn and Moore that was recorded in the studio in real time with no edits or overdubs.
Okkyung Lee is a South Korean cellist, improviser, and composer.
Mycale is a group of four vocalists-arrangers assembled by John Zorn in 2009 to create original a cappella arrangements from his Book of Angels compositions. Composed of Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Sofia Rei, Sara Serpa and Malika Zarra, Mycale sings texts in Hebrew, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic from the Hebrew Bible, Rumi, Fernando Pessoa, and Heraclitus.
The Book Beri'ah is a box set by John Zorn, released on August 17, 2018 by Tzadik Records. The box comprises the final ninety-two compositions that complete the final installment of Zorn's twenty-five year Masada project in limited edition box set of eleven compact discs. All About Jazz commended the compositions for having many levels of meaning and sonic listenability.
Jorge Roeder is a Peruvian bass player and composer. He has performed and collaborated with many jazz artists including Gary Burton, Nels Cline and John Zorn. As part of the Julian Lage Group, he received a 2010 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, for Sounding Point.
Dora Juárez Kiczkovsky is a Mexican singer and filmmaker of Argentinian Jewish origin.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
