| Thea Soti | |
| Birth Date: | 3 September 1989 |
| Birth Place: | Subotica, Vojvodina |
| Origin: | Serbia |
| Genre: | Jazz, free improvisation, experimental |
| Occupation: | Musician, composer |
| Instrument: | Vocals, live electronics, percussion, piano |
Thea Soti (born 3 September 1989) is a vocalist, experimental sound artist, and composer.
Soti was raised in a Hungarian family in Serbia, where she received classical musical training since her age six. As a classical pianist, she participated successfully in several international competitions. Later she engaged herself with jazz and popular musical styles in Budapest and Berlin.[1] [2] She studied jazz vocals and composition at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, University of Lucerne and Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.[3] Her main focus is working with the human voice as an instrument and combiningstructures of free improvisation with open compositions, either for solo, small or large ensembles.[4]
In 2010, she founded her world-music project "Nanaya"[5] with Daniel S. Scholz (Oud), Johannes Keller (Double-Bass) and Jonas Pirzer (Drums), where she sings mostly in Hungarian.[6] She has toured in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Hungary,[7] Serbia, Czech Republic and Slovakia with different bands, among others with "Manivolanti",[8] "Viktor Bürkland Trio"[9] and "Thea Soti Quartet".,[10] [11]
She is part of the jazz trio "RYMM" with Salim Javaid (Saxophone) and Anthony Greminger (Drums).
She is a founding member of the Sung Sound composer´s collective, which initiates cooperation between young and up-coming vocalist-composers and European big bands.[12] She is also known as a composer working with large ensembles (Modern Art Orchestra, DDSSBB, Subway Jazz Orchestra, Fette Hupe, Cherry Tree Orchestra, Tonhallen Orchestra, etc.).[13]
In 2014, Soti won the 2nd prize of the international big band composing competition JazzComp Graz.[14]