Fabio Giacolone singing at the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition

Image credit: Damien Richard

by Fabio Giacalone ’16

My first day at the 2016 Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in Switzerland was quite an eventful one. It flew by pretty quickly and included a lot of travel logistics, but I was also able to rehearse with the house trio as well as meet and bond with my fellow vocal contestants. That afternoon, not far from the conference site, there were a few workshops led by famous artists, a highlight of which for me was meeting Patty Austin and singing with her. That same day we also had the chance to visit the home of Claude Noble, Montreux Jazz Festival founder, up in the mountains, and enjoy walking around his amazing chalets.

The day after, the semifinal round was held and the finalists were then chosen immediately after. I was selected as one of the three finalists out of the 10 contestants competing. Here’s a video of my performance in the semifinals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z86cQ3hu7gY

The day of the finals was awesome and went by extremely fast. The finalists each had a rehearsal with the trio in the late morning in preparation for the final round later on that day.

This round of the competition consisted of each finalist singing three songs, and in the end, I was chosen as the third-place finisher. The songs I performed were “Orange Blossoms in Summertime” by Kurt Elling, “Four” by Miles Davis, and “Tight” by Betty Carter.

Overall, it was an amazing experience and extremely rewarding!

Here’s a video of my final performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CANxDkUY35g

Fabio Giacalone is an Italian jazz vocalist who graduated from Berklee in 2016 with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Vocal Performance. He was awarded a scholarship through Berklee on the Road at the Umbria Jazz Festival’s clinic in July 2012. In July 2016 he was awarded with the third prize of the prestigious Shure Jazz Voice Competition at Montreux Jazz Festival. 

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