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Gwen Sampé
Gwen is a singer/songwriter living in France. She has performed and taught throughout Europe.
About Me
Biography
Gwendolyn Jewel Sampe is an American singer now living in
Paris. Her first significant
musical work was not as a straight- ahead jazz singer but as the
composer/director of a
poetry-song production titled “Turnings”, based on the poetry of
Nigerian author Wole
Soyinka. She was also the first woman to play the part of god in
Benjamin Britten's “Noah's
Flood”. This was followed by her taking the part of 'spirit' in the
Ariya production of
Purcell's “Dido and Aeneas.”
During this time Gwen has also been performing in various jazz
venues in Europe -
Iceland, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and England. Her
percussive and vocally
challenging style has been compared to Bobby McFerrin and
Betty Carter.
Her debut album Water Gazing , includes her own compositions,
songs from the
standards repertoire, which includes a re-working of the Leadbelly
song 'There's A Man
Goin' Round Takin' Names(. The musicians on this album are Phil
Dawson guitars, Larry
Bartley double bass, and the drummers Sebastian Rochford,
Andrea Trillo and Kendrick
Rowe.
Other than her performance work, Gwen also teaches voice, runs
music workshops, and
has done much work in England and Ireland with teenagers at risk
using Black American
folk forms as way a way of expression.
