JANICE BORLA

b. 29 September 1949, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Borla began studying singing at the age of 12, subsequently earning a BA degree in music from Barat College, Lake Forest, Illinois. She also studied at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. During this latter period, she joined Ineluctable Modality, a 12-voice chamber ensemble, the repertoire for which came from contemporary composers such as Mauricio Kagel, Morgan Powell and Iannis Xenakis. In 1986 in Canada, she was responsible for the creation of a vocal jazz curriculum at the Saskatchewan School of the Arts. Three years later, Borla founded the Janice Borla Vocal Jazz Camp, its stated objective being to ‘provide an educational and nurturing environment for aspiring jazz vocalists in an intensified, week long course of study and skills development conducted by a staff of professional jazz artists’. Widely praised for its intentions and accomplishments, the camp has become popular read more...