Miriam Ast

Miriam Ast is a German jazz singer, saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator based in London. She is a senior lecturer for jazz singing at Leeds College of Music since 2017 and graduated with an MA with distinction in jazz singing from the Royal Academy of Music in July 2016. She was one of seven selected semi-finalists in the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in 2017 chaired by grammy-winning jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. In May 2017, Miriam received the Best Vocalist Prize with her duo together with Spanish pianist Victor Gutierrez at the Bucharest International Jazz Competition. Their debut album 'Secret Songs' was released in July 2018 to critical acclaim, featuring the legendary British saxophonist Stan Sulzmann. At the moment the duo is playing a European tour encompassing countries such as the Czech Republic, Germany, UK, Spain and many more. Whilst living in Germany, Miriam graduated with a Bachelors in jazz saxophone and singing from the conservatoire in Mainz with high marks and was a member of the prestigious German National Jazz Orchestra (BuJazzO) from 2012-2013. She was lucky to perform with established musicians on the German jazz scene such as the bass player Vitold Rek, echo jazz awardee Sebastian Sternal, pianist Peter Reiter and saxophonist Gerd Dudek. Miriam is also a featured singer with the German band Klezmers Techter.