April Varner Quartet

“Award-Winning NYC Jazz Vocalist, April Varner, returns to Zinc Bar! She was awarded the 2023 Winner of the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition, 2024 Honorable Mention Award in the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Competition and a most recent mention in the 2025 73rd Annual Critics Poll in Downbeat Magazine as a “Rising Star Female Vocalist of the Year”.

April released her debut album in 2024 entitled “April by April Varner”, on Cellar Live Record Label. This genre-busting collection of all April-titled songs was produced by 3-time GRAMMY winning drummer, producer and educator, Ulysses Owens Jr. It received many accolades, such as a 4 out of 5 star review from Downbeat Magazine (October 2024 Issue), was included in Downbeat’s “Best Albums of 2024” list (January Issue) and was listed in The New York City Jazz Record’s “Best of 2024”under “Debuts” and “Vocal Releases” (January Issue).In Winter of 2024, she self-released a 6 song EP, entitled “Winter Songs Vol. 1”.

This small collection of classic wintery tunes featured a stellar line up of musicians – the Emmet Cohen Trio, Grammy-Award Winning Vocalist, Nicole Zuraitis, and Award-Winning Brazilian Guitarist, Chico Pinheiro. In November 2025, April released the second collection, “Winter Songs Vol. 2”, this time as a full length Christmas album on Cellar Live Record Label.

Once again produced by Ulysses Owens Jr. , the record received many glowing reviews: “the album retains warmth without succumbing to nostalgia, intelligence without pretension…” (Paris Move, Highest Rating of ‘Indespensable’), “It isn’t just her pretty voice, either. It’s her style, technique, and heart…” (The Toledo Blade).

Her next album, entitled “Ella” is set to be released on March 20th 2026 with Cellar Live. Having been April’s biggest vocal inspiration, this album will feature a collection of Ella Fitzgerald’s greatest hits with a twist, spanning from the very beginning of her career to her peak. Produced by Ulysses Owens Jr., personnel include Emmet Cohen, Yasushi Nakamura, and more!

Praised by DownBeat as an artist with “impressive range,” April Varner has gained steady momentum as a supreme vocalist, a bebop technician and a contemporary storyteller. The Toledo-born New Yorker has toured the world, dazzling audiences with her growing mastery of the American Songbook and her creative approach to the vocalese tradition. She has amassed more than 90K followers on Instagram and TikTok, and collaborated with a roster of emerging artists and living legends, including Postmodern Jukebox, Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit, John Pizzarelli, Ulysses Owens, Jr., Theo Bleckmann, Yasushi Nakamura, Benny Benack III, The Sunhouse Singers vocal trio, Luther Allison, Nicole Zuraitis, Chico Pinheiro, Leandro Pellegrino, Dayna Stephens, Reuben Rogers and the recently departed Russell Malone. She’s headlined across New York City at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club, Mezzrow, Birdland, Minton’s Playhouse, The Django, Zinc Bar and 55 Bar; across the country at Blues Alley, The Side Door, Chris’ Jazz Cafe, Sam First and The Deerhead Inn; and internationally at Duc des Lombards, 38 Riv and 18 Oberkampf in Paris.

In four short years April has launched two EPs and three acclaimed albums, including her forthcoming March release Ella, produced by Owens, Jr. April graduated from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University with her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Jazz Performance before earning her Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she received the President’s Award for a two-year scholarship. She has enjoyed wide recognition on the competition circuit as a Rising Star Jazz Vocalist in the 73rd Annual DownBeat Critics Poll; winner for one of DownBeat’s Best Albums of 2024; recipient of Honorable Mention in the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Competition; winner of the 2023 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition; and a finalist in the Collegiate Combo Competition for the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2020.

This is a CD release performance.

Will Hill III (piano) Aaron Matson (guitar) Eytan Schillinger-Hyman (bass) Max Marsillo (drums)

To keep up with April’s busy tour schedule, subscribe to her newsletter: aprilvarner.com and follow her on YouTube, Instagram @aprilvarnermusic, and TikTok @aprilvarnermusic.