Leah Shoshanah

 Leah Shoshanah is a Chicago-based singer, songwriter, cantorial soloist, guitarist and teaching artist. She performs in a myriad of settings and represents several genres in her concerts, including jazz, folk, Brazilian, funk and rock. She plays originals and covers, often improvising solos (scat singing, mouth trumpet) and even entire songs.  Leah has released two albums of original music, “A Child Like This” (2017), featuring an ensemble of nine musicians and "Stillness" (2018), an intimate collection of solo Jazz and Brazilian guitar arrangements. Leah and her music have toured both coasts and she has played to rooms big and small, solo and with bands, from historic Chicago stages (Old Town School, the Green Mill, PianoForte Chicago) to synagogues, church basements, yoga studios and other grassroots community spaces.  As a teaching artist, Leah emphasizes both technical skill-building and intuitive playing. She teaches students hard skills, like, note-reading, scales, harmonic colors, practicing with a metronome, posture and breathing so students can develop soft skills, like jamming, writing original music and bringing life to written music. Her goal with each student is to help them learn what they need to learn in order to play music with whoever, wherever and whenever they want.  As a Cantorial Soloist, Leah sings, plays guitar and writes original adaptations of Jewish prayer and spiritual texts. She enjoys digging deep to find selections from vintage songbooks in library basements and transcribing Youtube recordings of old Sephardic melodies. Leah is the resident Cantorial Soloist and music curator for Tzedek Chicago. She also works freelance with communities around the Chicagoland area.  Leah is currently writing music for her next album. For this project, she is focusing on dance music inspired by 70s funk and modern indie-rock.  “Through her unbelievably adaptable voice, Leah Shoshanah shifts tones frequently... but balances folk minimalism so well. Nothing is simple in her messages or in her brilliantly written songs.” - Chaz Thoughts.

• https://www.leahshoshanah.com/