A HEMU student at the Montreux Jazz Academy
Singer Imelda Gabs is one of the young talents selected for the 3rd edition of the Montreux Jazz Academy. A jazz student at the HEMU, Imelda Gabs will have the chance to rub shoulders with the likes of Patti Austin, Yaron Herman and Trilok Gurtu during a week of artistic exchange.
The Academy will take over the premises of the HEMU and EJMA in Lausanne for the first time from March 3 to 10, 2017, and Imelda Gabs has been selected from among the HEMU students to take part in the Montreux Jazz Academy. Born in 1998, the young singer, pianist and composer grew up under the artistic influence of her father, Doctor Gabs, a swing and boogie-woogie pianist. The singer founded A Time To Remember, an association supporting young artists, for which she won the Grand Prix Jeunesse de la Ville de Lausanne in 2015. Today, alongside her studies, she performs solo and in duo with percussionist Clyde Philipp's. She joins nine other virtuosos from around the world, all finalists in the Montreux Jazz Competitions (piano, guitar and voice) at the last edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
With Patti Austin
Following the sad death of Al Jarreau, singer Patti Austin, a great friend of the Festival, has agreed to be one of the mentors of the Montreux Jazz Academy 2017 alongside Yaron Herman (artistic director of the event), Trilok Gurtu, Marcus Miller, Ziv Ravitz and Kurt Rosenwinkel.
Director of the HEMU, Flon site, Laurence Desarzens, is delighted to welcome the Montreux Jazz Academy with the EJMA, "it's a chance for our students to have access to artists of such importance and to their source of knowledge. I'm looking forward to the emulation that the Academy will provoke within the schools and in the heart of Flon".
The Montreux Jazz Academy offers the public free events every evening from 5pm, as well as a closing concert on Friday March 10 at 8:30pm at the BCV Concert Hall.
