About Maggie

Vocalist, Composer, Improviser and Arranger, Maggie Kinney, 23, is currently based in

Baltimore, MD. Originally from Chicago, Maggie has performed locally, across the country and internationally; including the Monterey Jazz Festival, South Beach Jazz Festival, Andy’s Jazz Club, Fitzgerald’s Jazz Club, Fulton Street Collective, Lagniappe Jazz Club (Miami), the CVA Blue Stage, and around surrounding Chicago areas.

 

Maggie is a singing storyteller; inviting people on a heartfelt musical journey through her innovative original compositions and arrangements. She is inspired by musical greats like Carmen McCrae, Joe Henderson and Stevie Wonder, while also being drawn to today’s incredible musical narrators such as Gerald Clayton, Christie Daischell, Ambrose Akinmuserie, Kendrick Scott and Gretchen Parlato.

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Maggie’s formal musical journey began early through piano lessons and middle school choir when she was 11. Shortly after, Maggie joined her first jazz ensemble as a freshman in high school, and fell in love with the groove, harmony and story of this music. 

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While in Chicago, Maggie was highly involved in the Illinois Music Education Association as a part of the Classical and Jazz Programs. In 2019, Maggie was selected as one of the top nine jazz vocalists in the state of Illinois to be a member of the 2019 Honors All-State Vocal Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Jeremy Fox(School of Music Vocations), performing at the Illinois Music Education Association’s annual conference in Peoria, IL. In her later years of high school, she had the opportunity to open for the Grammy Nominated Vocal Jazz Group, the New York Voices, at the Chicago New York Voices Festival. After graduating from high school, she was selected as the Vocalist of the 2020 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra at the Monterey Jazz Festival directed by the Grammy-nominated Jazz Pianist Gerald Clayton.

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Recently, Maggie has been a 2021 Downbeat Student Music Award Outstanding Performance Winner in the Vocal Jazz Soloist Category in the Undergraduate College Division, as well being named a 2021 National YoungArts Foundation Winner in Jazz Voice. She has also been the featured Vocalist on the award winning Shout Section Big Band(based in Chicago)’s Winter Tour in the Midwest and with the Diego Rodriguez Big Band. Maggie is also making her jazz festival debut as a Bandleader in January 2024 with her own group, the Maggie Kinney Collective, at the South Beach Jazz Festival in Miami, FL.

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Within the last couple years, Maggie has had the opportunity to work and learn alongside some of the most in demand members of the modern jazz community.  She was selected as the vocalist for the prestigious, donor funded-Jazz Aspen Academy led by Grammy Award Winning, musical director Christian McBride; where she also got to sing, play and perform alongside Grammy Winning Vocalist Lisa Fischer and Grammy Winning trumpeter Brian Lynch. She has also sung and worked alongside many other incredible musicians, including, Cyrille Aimee, Luciana Souza, Michael Mayo, Marcus Strickland, John Hart, John Yarling, Sean Jones, Warren Wolf, Tim Green,

Alex Brown, Miguel Zenón, Guillermo Klein and Kendrick Scott.​​​​

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Maggie is graduate from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music with a degree in

Studio Music and Jazz Voice. At Frost, Maggie studied in the studios of Alison Wedding, Dr. Kate Reid, Dr. Maria Quintanilla, Marcus Strickland (improvisation) and John Daversa (composition).

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Maggie is currently at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University as a Graduate Jazz fellow studying under the tutelage of Chareneé Wade, Sean Jones, Tim Green and Warren Wolf.  While being in Baltimore, Maggie has performed as a headliner at the Billie Holliday Jazz Festival with her own group,  been the featured vocalist with the Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra, and has performed as both a side woman and featured guest all across the east coast.​​​

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