Shana Tucker

Lyrical storyteller. Soulful cellist. Dynamic singer-songwriter. That’s SHANA TUCKER. Her unique genre of ChamberSoul™ weaves together jazz, roots folk, acoustic pop, and a touch of R&B, into melodies that echo in your head for days. She’s the rare performer you’ve never seen the likes of before—and one you’ll never forget.

Steeped in story, Shana’s ChamberSoul is rich, deep music that sits down next to you and puts its arm around your shoulders. “I’m intrinsically drawn to acoustic instruments because of their resonance, warmth, and intimacy,” she says. “ChamberSoul brings musicians and audience close, and makes the music tangible, no matter how large or small the room is.” Every Shana Tucker performance feels like it’s just for you.

A Long Island native, Shana studied classical cello at Howard University in Washington, DC, where she dove into improvisational jazz and honed her singer-songwriting skills, and received her degree in Violoncello Performance from CUNY-Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, where she studied with master cellist Marion Feldman. After Cirque du Soleil heard an NPR interview with Shana about her debut CD, SHiNE and her ChamberSoul style, they invited her to be cellist/vocalist for their show, KÀ in Las Vegas, where she performed for five years before returning to North Carolina.

A sought-after collaborator, Shana performs and records with legendary jazz saxophonist/composer Bennie Maupin, jazz drummer/composer Shirazette Tinnin, jazz flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell, and Grammy-nominated NuSoul collective The Foreign Exchange. Shana’s newest project, Women’s Work, is a female-led collective of jazz, soul, and pop singer-songwriters and musicians representing both east and west coasts.

Shana is a recipient of several grant awards through local arts councils, including United Arts Council (Raleigh, NC) and two Nevada Arts Council grants, one of which is the prestigious Artist Fellowship for her exemplary work as a Performing Artist. She serves on review panels and advisory committees for arts organizations across the country, including United Arts (Raleigh, NC), South Arts (Atlanta, GA), and Nevada Arts Council (Carson City, NV).

Shana is a board member for Blair Publisher (formerly Carolina Wren Press), a North Carolina-based small-press organization that publishes diverse minority writers of quality fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and children's literature. She also serves on the advisory board for the Washington Women in Jazz Festival, an annual event in Washington, DC that celebrates and promotes women jazz artists through concerts, jam sessions, lectures, panel discussions, masterclasses and a young artist competition.

A front-line advocate for arts education, Shana is an accomplished teaching artist, incorporating community engagement, workshops, and teaching residencies into her touring schedule. Working with educators and students from Pre-Kindergarten through college beyond, Shana is a North Carolina A+ Schools Fellow, and a teaching artist with Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, United Arts Council of Raleigh/Wake County and Durham Arts Council in North Carolina, and The Smith Center for Performing Arts in Las Vegas.