About the Artist

About Alyssa Allgood:

Wielding her instrument with extraordinary nuance and depth, Alyssa Allgood has excelled as a young vocal talent in Chicago’s vibrant jazz scene and beyond. She is consistently praised for her lyrical depth, instrumental approach and accomplished scat and vocalese singing. DownBeat Magazine described her as “singing with a depth beyond her years…assured and daring” and the Chicago Tribune as a “model of sophisticated song interpretation.” Alyssa won the Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Voice Competition, was named Best Jazz Entertainer in the Chicago Music Awards and a Luminarts Cultural Foundation Jazz Improvisation Fellow. She recently won the David Baker Memorial Scholarship through the Jazz Education Network and has received grant funding from several prestigious organizations. Allgood’s three albums have each received critical acclaim. Alyssa is a sought-after clinician and has presented masterclasses at many esteemed institutions. She is truly a multi-faceted rising jazz star.

About Joan Hickey:

Joan has been a pianistic force in the Illinois jazz scene and beyond since the 1980s. Howard Riech of the Chicago Tribune describes “Hickey remains one of the most appealing and distinctive pianists in the city…(she) produces gorgeously singing lines and unexpected harmonies…The gentility of her touch is matched by the intellectual accomplishment of her improvisation…Listen closely and you’ll hear an erudite and sophisticated improviser with a formidable musical imagination.” Hickey has been awarded two NEA grants as well as an Illinois Arts Council grant for music composition. She has worked with jazz greats including Nat Adderly, Von Freeman, Clark Terry, and Buster Williams, toured internationally with the Jazz Members Big Band featuring vocalist Joe Williams, and played the Chicago Jazz Festival with Cab Calloway. She has led a variety of jazz groups over her career. Teaching has been a consistently important part of Joan’s work and she has mentored many young musicians over the years.