About Maggie

Vocalist, Composer, Improviser and Arranger, Maggie Kinney, 21, is currently based in Chicago, IL and Miami, FL. Originally from Western Chicago, Maggie has performed locally and across the country; including the Monterey Jazz Festival, South Beach Jazz Festival, Andy’s Jazz Club, Fitzgerald’s Jazz Club, Le Piano (Chicago), Peoria Civic Center, Lagniappe Jazz Club (Miami) and around the Western Chicago and Miami areas. Maggie aspires to be a singing storyteller: to invite people on a heartfelt musical journey. 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 Cecile McLorin Salvant, Gerald Clayton, Walter Smith 3, Ambrose Akinmuserie and Gretchen Parlato.

​

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

​

Additionally, in High School, 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.

​

Most 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.

​

Paying homage and understanding the jazz history in the Chicago/Chicagoland area is something that holds very near and dear to her heart. She has had the opportunity to have been mentored and taught by Michael Molloy, John Wojciehowski, Alyssa Allgood and the Jazz Community in Chicago. She has been honored to have their guidance, and to be able to soak up as much knowledge of the idiom from them as possible. She is beyond grateful to have their support in her ongoing musical journey and to learn how they continue to serve the music in the best way possible.

​

Maggie is unconditionally grateful for all of her professors that have been a part of her journey in Miami, including Dr. Kate Reid, Alison Wedding, Dante Luciani, Brian Lynch, Etienne Charles, Marcus Strickland, John Hart, John Yarling and John Daversa.

​

Giving back to the community around her is extremely important to Maggie. She is very passionate about using her musical gifts to give. She performs on a regular basis in nursing homes, fundraisers and benefit concerts in the Chicagoland area. She is a regular performer in the Northern Illinois Food Bank Food for Life Fundraisers, and for the Tyler Brett Caruso Foundation. She regularly performs her own originals and arrangements at the events in order to raise awareness for suicide prevention in the Chicagoland area. She was a current co-chair of the Frost Mentorship Program, which pairs up new incoming students with returning students to help guide and help them through their first year at Frost.

​

In addition to performing, Maggie has a very large passion for teaching. She is currently hired as a Voice and Piano Instructor at the Barrett School of Music based in South Florida. She currently teaches in the Miami studio, traveling around the area locally to Pinecrest, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, and Kendall. She also is a Teaching Assistant at Miami Children’s Choir for their High School Vocal Jazz and Contemporary group, Rhapsody.

​

Maggie just graduated from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music studying Studio Music and Jazz Voice on a Presidential Music Scholarship in May of 2024. At the University, Maggie has been a student in the studios of Alex Brandenburg, Alison Wedding, Bailey Hinkley Grogan, Dr. Kate Reid, Maria Quintanilla, Marcus Strickland (improvisation) and John Daversa (compositi

​

Maggie is currently at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hoskins University as a Graduate Jazz fellow studying under the tutelage of Chareneé Wade and Sean Jones.  While being in Baltimore, Maggie has performed at the Billie Holliday Jazz Festival and been the featured guest vocalist at the Bright Moments Jam Session at Keystone Korner and the featured vocalist with the Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra.​

​

​

​