Why JAZZUZA?
and who am I?
An excerpt of Callandra's solo on a recording of Kathryn Sherman's original composition "Bloom" 2019
About me
Callandra Youngleson is a South African vocalist, composer and educator living in Chicago. She has performed internationally collaborating with some of South Africa and America's greatest jazz musicians. Callandra is a proud graduate of the University of North Texas College of Music having completed her Masters in Jazz Studies in 2019.
During her tenure at UNT, she also served as a jazz voice teaching fellow teaching jazz voice majors, directing her own vocal ensemble and being the graphic designer and live-sound manager for the jazz voice department. As a member of the award-winning UNT Jazz Singers, Callandra has performed around Texas, Chicago and New York and has collaborated with artists including Kurt Elling, the Swingles, Johnaye Kendrick and Michelle Nicolle.
Callandra is passionate about performing and collaborating with different musicians from around the globe. She completed her BMus in jazz voice and composition at WITS University in Johannesburg. In 2016, She was selected as the vocalist of the South African Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band being chosen as one of the top 8 young jazz musicians in the country. The band performed at the Grahamstown Youth Jazz Festival and the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg under the leadership of virtuosic bassist and composer Carlo Mombelli.
Callandra also has a diverse range of voice over and studio session experience and works as a freelance composer. She is the commissioned composer for Bodymindzone: The biggest YouTube channel for relaxation music in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has also composed and arranged for live orchestra, string quartet, animation and film. Her independent film score for the award-winning documentary “Women in the Dark” was screened at the Africa in Motion film festival in Scotland. Callandra's voice is present on voice overs from educational platforms to radio recordings and she works as a voice over artist on the voices.com website.
Callandra loves sharing her growing knowledge about healthy, liberating vocal technique and expressional freedom and creativity and has been a vocal coach at WITS University in Johannesburg as well as being a teaching fellow at UNT College of Music together with teaching at a number of other private music institutions. She has over 7 years of vocal coaching and music educational experience and has a passion for sharing her infectious love for music, creativity and finding your own voice. Callandra is currently a voice and piano teacher at Flatts and Sharpe Music Company in Chicago and also started her own online studio for musicians called "Cal's Studio".
In her spare time, you can find Callandra cooking for and spending quality time with her friends and family. She treasures time spent in coffee shops reading, learning and writing. She also loves traveling as much as possible and connecting with people from around the globe. She has a passion for spreading the incredible music of South Africa as well as sharing its diverse beautiful culture and she is working on finding ways to bring the global jazz community into closer connection and communication and improving access to quality jazz education and programming.
South African jazz is something very close to my heart. Being from South Africa, and having fallen in love with jazz, and developed in the soil of some of the greatest South African jazz musicians around me, it always astounds me how little people around the globe that I have met know about the wealth of incredible music coming from our country. Especially now, the rising stars of the South African jazz scene are bringing together eclectic fibres from so many different musics and creating art that represents the hope, beauty, courage, colour, strength and spirit that exemplifies our country. JAZZUZA is a passion project of mine - to share my growing journey of learning more about the jazz from my home and sharing as much as I can about South African jazz with those I come into contact with. Having the priveledge of connecting with amazing jazz musicians in the USA, I wanted to share this music with them, for the worlds to come closer together, and it is my goal to start sewing the worlds together in whatever way I can, sharing the wealth from both sides with each other, and helping each world be richer for the relationship and sharing.