TIIA FREEMAN

My parents tell me I started singing along to children’s songs even before I learned to talk. They weren’t at all surprised as both of them have musical talent run in their families from great grandparents, to uncles, aunts and cousins. They enrolled me in piano lessons when I was in Kindergarten, and I studied with Marc Hager for several years. We had an antique baby grand at home at that time, and I had to be propped up on a thick foam cushion to be able to reach the old banged-up ivory keys.
 

I spent my 9th birthday on a family vacation in Hawaii and was introduced to the Ukulele.  All I wanted for my birthday was an Ukulele of my own. I could hardly wait to get my instrument home to get it tuned and to start learning. I was in love with strings!  I took Ukulele lessons with Roger Jensen and gained a level of mastery that allowed me to accompany any song if given a chord chart.

Learning piano and Ukulele was great fun, but I was still intrigued by singing and wanted to learn from a voice teacher. When I was 10, I managed to talk my parents to adding voice lessons on the weekly schedule. My instructor was Sarah Richàrd, who taught me singing technique and introduced me to classical songs and Broadway tunes. The school choir also gave me more opportunities to sing, and I was selected for the school district honor choir a number of times in elementary and middle school. Those were exciting opportunities to sing and perform with other kids who were seriously into singing – and to be exposed to different styles of music, including jazz.

In fifth grade, my school offered students an opportunity to join either the school orchestra or the band.  I tried several instruments and finally selected the cello – no wonder – the instrument that most closely resembles the tones of a human voice. I started taking private lessons with Ellen Pew, who later married and assumed the name Ellen Kilcup. I played the cello in the Terrace Park Elementary School Orchestra and went on to play it in the Edmonds-Woodway High School Freshman Orchestra and then the Edmonds-Woodway Philharmonic Ochestra.

Soon another instrument was calling my name – it was the guitar.  We had one at home, and I thought I should learn to play it.  After all, how hard could it be after learning all the chords on the Ukulele?  Roger Hansen was also a guitar teacher, so that was an easy switch.  I studied guitar with him for three years.

By now, I was heavily invested in string instruments, taking weekly lessons both on my guitar and cello, but on one unfortunate evening, my music practice came to a screeching halt when I severely injured my finger.  Suddenly, I was unable to play my strings and go to my music lessons. As with every tragedy, there was a silver lining: I now had time again to take voice lessons!  My parents got me a voice coach, Darla Pumphrey, who started to teach me jazz singing, which was something that I had been exposed to and interested in since 7th grade honor choir

The timing of the beginning of my jazz journey was perfect as just a couple of weeks into my lessons, I had an opportunity to audition for the Edmonds- Woodway Mello-Aires jazz choir. I was selected as an incoming freshman and have enjoyed singing with this talented group directed by Charlotte Reese.  As a member of Mello-Aires, I’ve had many opportunities to participate in jazz festivals, learn from workshops by professional vocalists and groups and gained confidence as a soloist.

In March of 2017, I participated in the Seattle-Kobe Sister City Association Female Jazz Vocalist Audition at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in Seattle and was chosen as the winner of the High School category and performed as a featured artist at our sister city’s Jazz Queen Competition in May of 2017.  I also enjoyed singing at the Sone Jazz Club in Kobe Japan while  i was there!