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Margi Gianquinto
Singer of the Golden Age of American Popular Song
"A jazz chanteuse whose musical awareness and polish are first rate" ~Seth Gilman, "The Examiner"
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Biography
Margi has been building a reputation for authenticity and excellence on the New York jazz scene for over a decade. Most recently (in Dec 2023) she joined the Chris Byars Quartet for their Christmas Eve performance at Smalls Jazz Club. In November of 2018 she played to a sold out room at Birdland Jazz Club, a self created tribute show around the songs and legacy of the great Jo Stafford. In June of 2017 she made her debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing, and did her first international tour (to Israel). She has performed at Mezzrow Jazz Club, Mohonk Mountain House, The Lambs Club, The New York Athletic Club, The New York Swing Dance Society, The Jalopy Theater and many other venues in and around NYC. She has also made appearances at Iridium, The Friars Club, The American Popular Song Society, The Dutch Treat Club, The NY Hot Jazz Festival, Urban Stages, Smoke, The Drawing Room and others. She is grateful to have had the good fortune to sing with some of the very best musicians on the New York Jazz scene. Her sultry style, which many describe as "vintage," and "transportive" is reminiscent of an earlier era when those marvelous big band singers and gifted vocalists sang the music of Berlin, Gershwin, Porter, Arlen and Rodgers & Hart.
As far back as she can remember, Margaret, whose childhood nickname was Margi, listened lovingly to music from America's Golden Age: From Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Old Hollywood (and especially MGM Musicals). With these songs at her core, she followed her own musical path, from classical piano to choral/harmony singing across multiple genres. Her true passion, however, has always been the timeless evergreens that she grew up listening to.
When she's not leading the band, Margi is half of a folk duo with her sister, Mary Pierce (singer/songwriter), teaches individual piano lessons to children through adults, has been the music director/choir director at several churches in CT & Rhode Island (playing & singing) and leads and accompanies the men's choir of the Stamford Senior Men's Association. She has accompanied in schools and for choirs in and around Manhattan and CT and has sung both alto and tenor in several professional (both secular and sacred) choirs in CT & NYC. She has also music directed musicals and led choirs in CT & NYC. She has experience and is available for session work singing harmonic vocals across multiple genres (especially the folk genre).
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