Veronica Swift at Virginia Arts Festival at Attucks Theatre

This Charlottesville native grew up surrounded by music, with two world renowned jazz artists for parents: her father was the late “master of bebop piano”(LA Scene) Hod O’Brien, and her mother is singer Stephanie Nakasian, acclaimed for her “vocal virtuosity” (The New York Times). With those genes, is it any wonder Veronica was just a child when she started singing professionally? She was singing in public by age 9 and had released two CDs by age 13; as a kid she appeared at such jazz hot spots as Manhattan’s Dizzy's Club Coca Cola in Manhattan as well as major festivals. Now, having recently graduated from the University of Miami and relocated to New York, she is rapidly making a name for herself—counting among her accomplishments a place in the 2015 Thelonious Monk Competition. This star on the rise now has a weekly Saturday night residency at the prestigious Birdland Jazz Club. ...

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This Charlottesville native grew up surrounded by music, with two world renowned jazz artists for parents: her father was the late “master of bebop piano”(LA Scene) Hod O’Brien, and her mother is singer Stephanie Nakasian, acclaimed for her “vocal virtuosity” (The New York Times). With those genes, is it any wonder Veronica was just a child when she started singing professionally? She was singing in public by age 9 and had released two CDs by age 13; as a kid she appeared at such jazz hot spots as Manhattan’s Dizzy's Club Coca Cola in Manhattan as well as major festivals. Now, having recently graduated from the University of Miami and relocated to New York, she is rapidly making a name for herself—counting among her accomplishments a place in the 2015 Thelonious Monk Competition. This star on the rise now has a weekly Saturday night residency at the prestigious Birdland Jazz Club.

In addition to performing the Great American Songbook and bebop and vocalese classics, Veronica is also a passionate devotee of 1920s and ‘30s music. “Young in years, old in soul… Her styles cover the gamut from misty and breathy, to hauntingly passionate, swinging or soulful....her vocals are flawless as she riffs, scats and runs the gamut sliding up and down the scales” (Theaterpizzazz.com).

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