(Vocal Jazz) Ana Velinova & Walter Martella - Softly - 2014 (2010), MP3, 320

Jazz vocalist, conductor, composer and poet Ana Velinova has inspired audiences around the world. Vocally outstanding, stylistically elegant, innovative and emotionally raw Ana delivers her music effortlessly, leaving the audience bewildered and mesmerized.
Ana has enjoyed an international career working in diverse musical genres such as jazz, modern, classical and gospel. During her years as a fixture of New York City's avant-garde music scene, she formed the group Ensemble Gergana and released 'The Witch,' her first recording of original music. Most current recordings include:
'The Thief', which features Ana’s original compositions, as well as a creative exploration of Gypsy In My Soul and an elegantly powerful rendition of Joao Bosco’s O Bebado E A Equilibrista
'Softly' an intimate interpretation of timeless jazz ballads recorded live in a duo format with pianist Walter Martela
'InhalExale' an EP featuring one of Canada's most celebrated jazz musicians, Brad Turner on trumpet.
With a repertoire extending from Mozart and Stravinsky to Ellington, Monk and Jobim, as well as her own compositions, Ana has shared the stage with many accomplished artists including Bob Moses, Neil Swainson, Don Thompson, Brad Turner, Misha Piatigorsky, Willard Dyson, Ross Taggart and Eric Dozier.
In addition to her performance career Ana is well known for her entrepreneur work as a conductor, educator and event's producer. Ana currently holds the position of Head of Jazz Voice for the Jazz Department of the Victoria Conservatory of Music in Canada. She presides as conductor of the Victoria Conservatory of Music Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and has worked with the One Human Family Gospel Choirs in Canada and the USA as a vocal coach and director. Ana is also the Founder and first conductor of the Bulgarian Children's Choir and School "Gergana" in New York City which recognized her with the distinction of adopting her Bulgarian name. The Gergana Choir has given hundreds of concerts including performances at the Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall).
Ana holds a Master's Degree in Jazz and Contemporary Classical Voice Performance from the Longy School of Music in Boston, undergraduate diploma in Vocal Jazz from the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles and a diploma in classical guitar from the National Music School in Sofia, Bulgaria. Ana has also studied opera and classical art song in New York with world-renowned sopranos Stefka Evstatieva and Lucy Shelton.

A classic jazz vocal album of timeless jazz ballads masterfully performed in an intimate impressionistic style by two of Canada's most renowned musicians. Recorded "live off the floor" at the Powell River Academy of Music.
Softly intends to bring the listener a feeling of beauty and relaxation and to honour the American Arts Song form. It is a classic vocal jazz album masterfully performed in an intimate French Impressionistic style. The album was produced by Walter Martella, Ana Velinova and Paul Steenhuis and recorded over two afternoons at the Powell River Academy of Music in Canada on a Stainway D concert Grand piano. The artists have kept the few "imperfections such as slight noise from the inside and outside the concert hall to keep the authentic feel and sound of a live concert. In other words, what you hear on this record was produced with little or no editing...."live off the floor."