Artist Talk with Julia Keefe


women in red dress at a microphone singing

Artist Talk with Jazz Vocalist Julia Keefe

in conversation with Beth Piatote

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

5:00 - 6:30pm

Arts Research Center, Hearst Field Annex D23 (map)


Presented by the Arts Research Center with support from the Dean's Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities, and co-sponsored by the Department of Ethnic Studies, Department of Music Ethnomusicology Program, Joseph A. Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues, the Native American Studies Program, and Native American Student Development

"A songbird of a jazz vocalist."  - The New York Times
"She gives me hope for the future of jazz."  - Judy Carmichael, NPR

Julia Keefe (Nez Perce) is an internationally acclaimed Native American jazz vocalist, actor, activist, and educator currently based in New York City. Her professional career has spanned over 18 years and she has headlined marquee events at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., NMAI-NY, Kennedy Center, as well as opening for 20-time GRAMMY Award winner Tony Bennett and 4-time GRAMMY Award winner Esperanza Spalding. Julia’s recent recording, Nobody Else But Me, was released to glowing reviews. Her life’s work is the revival and honoring of the legendary Coeur d’Alene jazz musician Mildred Bailey and is leading the campaign for Bailey’s induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center. She currently directs the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band, highlighting the history and future of Indigenous people in jazz, which released their first studio recording spring 2024. She has performed with world-class musicians including Jim McNeely, John Beasley, Emmet Cohen, Billy Test, Dan Hearle, Andreas Oberg, Bob Bowman, Clipper Anderson, Jack Mouse, the Lionel Hampton Big Band, among many others. 

Julia Keefe grew up in Kamiah, ID on her Tribe’s reservation before moving to Spokane, WA, where she began studying music and competing at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival each year, where she won Outstanding Vocal Soloist in the alto division. She earned her BA Music from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, taught jazz voice at Gonzaga University, and was a guest clinician at North Idaho College and Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival before relocating to NYC. She earned her master’s in music from Manhattan School of music in 2019, under the tutelage of Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Jo Lawry, Stefon Harris, Dave Liebman and Phil Markowitz. Julia also has a passion for Indigenous film and was a featured artist in Sterlin Harjo’s critically acclaimed documentary, Love and Fury. Her first feature film, Virginia Minnesota, was the closing feature at the 2018 Catalina Film Festival. Keefe is also the Executive Director of the Board for One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival, an annual non-profit festival in Spokane, showcasing the diversity and vitality of contemporary Native art in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Image: Chris Wooley

"Her voice is of another era. One of the only jazz songbirds in Indian Country." 

- Revolutions per Minute

The Indigenous Big Band - Documentary Trailer

Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band - "Water"

Artist Talk with Julia Keefe

Watch Julia Keefe's Artist Talk here