Biography

Maria Jacobs is an American born national recording Jazz vocalist, Christian singer-songwriter, voice over actor and author. Born of Syrian Lebanese and Armenian descent, she was raised in the Greater Cleveland, Ohio area. Maria is the vocal jazz professor at Kent State University, her alma mater, from where she graduated with honors. She is also a licensed music educator, teaching primary grades through high school for St. Joseph School and Open Tone Music, the latter serving inner Akron and Cleveland communities.

​Maria began singing as a small child, surrounded by family, in the choir of her Byzantine Melkite Greek Catholic Church, where beautifully complex Middle Eastern melodies and harmony were regularly heard. She was also exposed to jazz singing growing up thanks to her late father, drummer and singer Mike Jacobs, who frequently brought Maria up to the bandstand to sing. He exposed her to the Great American Songbook, and Jazz singers from Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Frank Sinatra, to drummers like Chic Webb and Gene Krupa.

​As if Jazz weren't enough, Maria became enthralled with singer-songwriters like Carol King, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder and more throughout the 70's. Not long after, she began writing songs of her own in the Jazz, Pop, R&B, Christian and Gospel music genres. Upon attending college at Ohio State University on a flute scholarship, she performed in ensembles but ultimately earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

​Maria worked in broadcasting for years as a traffic reporter and disc-jockey before moving to Los Angeles to further pursue her dream to broaden her singing career. She sang and recorded with the likes of Alphonso Johnson and the late Ndugu Chancellor (Weather Report), Multi-Platinum Producer Tommy Coster (Eminem, Santana), and she played prestigious venues such as The Ritz Carlton, The Four Seasons, B.B Kings Blues Club, and The Coach House, where she opened for Jazz trumpeter and songwriter Chuck Mangione. She has also been the opening act for Jazz singer-songwriter Bob Dorough, the R&B group Average White Band and British Soul Band Loose Ends.

​Maria has also been a featured soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall (MLK Celebration), with Music Director Damien Sneed for Wynton Marsalis' Abyssinian Mass, Byron Stripling and the Columbus Jazz Arts Group, and the Jazz Heritage Orchestra.

​Maria has released nine solo albums and fifteen singles since 1997. Here ninth album, Back at the Bop Stop (recorded live) was accepted in the highly coveted Best Jazz Vocal Album Category for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards ® in 2024, and her quartet was nominated in the Best Jazz Band Category for the third annual Cleveland Music Awards in that same year.

​All of her music can be found on all digital music platforms, and you will find her on IMDb as the theme song composer for the award winning film and television show, "So This is Love," and as a character actress in the independent film, "Research: The Musical.

www.mariajacobs.com

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