Alicia Olatuja
“...a singer with a strong and luscious tone and an amiably regal presence on stage”
“Olatuja possesses a special instrument: a full-bodied tone, precise pitch and personal engagement at the lowest whisper or highest wail.”
Vocalist, composer and educator, Alicia Olatuja, first came to the public’s attention as the featured soloist with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir at President Barack Obama’s Second Inauguration in 2013. The St. Louis native has since established herself as a versatile singer across jazz and classical music. The ease with which Olatuja seamlessly weaves jazz, blues, gospel, classical, pop and Afropop musical genres has led her to work with a wide variety of musicians - from jazz superstars Chris Botti, Christian McBride and Billy Childs, to R&B and gospel legends Chaka Khan and BeBe Winans.
“I see myself as a prism,” Olatuja says, “just as light goes into a prism and then scatters in different colors, that’s pretty much what I've always focused on being able to do as an artist, regardless of what genre I’m singing.”
With a Masters degree in Classical Voice/Opera from the Manhattan School of Music, Olatuja made her recital debut at Carnegie Hall and her professional debut as Sacagawea at Opera Memphis. It was at the Manhattan School of Music where she met African jazz/Afrobeat bassist Michael Olatuja. “I started working with him and some other musicians as well,” Olatuja says, “In 2007, we decided to merge our visions, as far as working together and creating music that we felt would impact people in a positive way.”
The result of this decade-long musical kinship is evident on 2024’s acclaimed Olatuja. The album draws on the rich heritage of Michael’s Yoruba culture, the evolving popular music of West Africa, the gospel and jazz traditions that inform Alicia’s musicality, and the strong links that tie all these threads together. Olatuja features an A-list supporting cast including drummers Obed Calvaire and Joshua Keitt, guitarists Femi Temowo and David Rosenthal, percussionist Magatte Sow and star pianist Christian Sands. With 2024 performances at the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Rochester Jazz Festival, Love Supreme Festival and London’s famed Ronnie Scotts, Alicia and Michael’s collaboration is a true celebration of their musical simpatico.
Along with leading her own quartet and co-leading Olatuja, Alicia is in demand as a side musician from some of jazz’s most admired artists. She is the featured vocalist in the touring ensemble of pianist Billy Child’s Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro recording. She recorded on bassist Christian McBrides’ album The Movement Revisited: A Portrait of Four Icons, and performed with drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. on his Songs of Freedom, commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center, which featured the music of Abbey Lincoln, Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone. In 2024, she toured South Africa with Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz Orchestra, led by trumpeter Sean Jones, and she made her New Jersey Symphony debut during spring 2023 with Steven Mackey under the baton of Xian Zhang.
In addition to her career as a performing artist, Olatuja is also an exceptional educator. She’s taught at several schools including, The University of Texas, The University of Illinois, Baylor University, Snow College, and at several schools in Turkey, Serbia and Japan when she was on tour with the musical, La Mama Cantata, based on the life of theater director/producer Ellen Stewart.
In 2021, during the pandemic, Olatuja - who is also a LPI certified Life Coach - created the Vocal Breakthrough Academy: a 5 week online program where singers and non-singers who are looking to break through self-doubt and comparison learn how to authentically connect with themselves and others through singing so they can transform their voices while using singing as a vehicle for personal-development.
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