Tessa Souter

Tessa Souter grew up in the UK, married and was a mother at 16, and a single mother at 18. She graduated from London University with a degree in English Literature in her 20s, and became a journalist in her early 30s. At 36, a one-week vacation to San Francisco turned into a four-year sojourn, cleaning houses to supplement her income for two years until she was able to support herself solely from her freelance journalism, regularly writing features for British Elle, Vogue, the Guardian, Independent, South China Morning Post, Sydney Morning Herald and US House Beautiful, among others.

At 40 she moved to New York and “accidentally” fell into her childhood dream to be a jazz singer, having her debut solo gig at 42 and winning a scholarship to Manhattan School of Music, which she left after one semester to study “on the job.” A protégé of jazz vocal legend Mark Murphy, who called her an “extraordinary” talent, she has since established herself as an uncommonly creative vocalist and songwriter with four critically-acclaimed albums, Listen Love (Nara, 2004), Nights of Key Largo (Venus, 2008), Obsession (Motéma, 2009) and Beyond the Blue (Venus-Motéma, 2013) - all visible on Amazon.

She has performed all over the world, including four sold out tours of the philharmonic halls of Russia, SF Jazz, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at the Lincoln Center, Mezzrow, the Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Joe’s Pub, Pizza Express, Ronnie Scott’s, the London and Edinburgh Jazz Festivals, and the Kennedy Center.

Tessa’s book, Anything I Can Do You Can Do Better, a how-to/self-help guide to pursuing a creative life, with interviews and tips from writers, actors, painters, musicians and more, was first published by Random House-Ebury Press in the UK in 2006 and is now available in the US and worldwide.