Ithamara Koorax
Ithamara Koorax is a Brazilian jazz and pop singer. She was born to a family of Polish Jews who fled Europe during World War II.Career
In her youth Koorax studied piano, opera, and classical music while listening to her parents' collection of Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, and Teddy Wilson. For influences she has cited Elizete Cardoso, Elis Regina, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, and Flora Purim, particularly Purim's album Stories to Tell, which inspired her choice of careers. When she was eighteen years old, she worked as a backup singer for commercials and for pop stars in Brazil. She achieved some popularity in 1990 after one of her songs was played on a television soap opera. Aside from singing with Brazilian musicians, she participated in a recording session for CTI that included American jazz musicians Art Farmer and Jack DeJohnette.
Koorax has performed in the U.S., Japan, Korea and many European countries, appearing at jazz festivals in London, Seoul, Belgrade, Funchal, Helsinki, and Indijja. She has performed classical and fusion concerts with symphony orchestras. In 2010, she performed 47 concerts in Brazil and 51 abroad, having toured Europe and Asia. On tour in August 2010, she recorded Arirang Korean pop musicians and American jazz musicians Lee Ritenour and Alan Broadbent. Her album Opus Classico contained works by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, Fauré, Ravel and Brazilian composers Heitor Villa-Lobos, Delza Agricola, Chiquinha Gonzaga and Machado de Assis. Her album All Around the World was recorded live in Rio, London, Paris, Sofia, Munich, Tokyo, and Seoul, with songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, and Jimi Hendrix.Discography
