Meet the Sisters
Lenora Zenzalai Helm
Lenora Zenzalai Helm is vocal musician, composer, arranger, and educator from Chicago, Illinois. Lenora currently serves as the Dean of the Professional Education Division at Berklee College of Music. Distinctions include former U.S. Jazz Ambassador, two-time Fulbright Senior Music Specialist, GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year quarterfinalist, Jazz Educator of Distinction award from Jazz Music Awards foundation. Her academic leadership is conjoined to four decades as a jazz recording and performing artist. MacDowell composer fellow, Chamber Music America/Doris Duke’s New Jazz Works award recipient, she made her Conductor debut at Carnegie Hall, 2024. With eight acclaimed album recordings, she holds a BM in Film Scoring/Voice from Berklee College of Music, a MM, Jazz Performance/East Carolina University and Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education from Boston University. Author of vocal jazz performance pedagogy textbook Sing Vocal Jazz, Teach Vocal Jazz slated for 2025 on Routledge/Taylor-Francis. Catch her TEDxBerklee talk.
Nnenna Freelon
Nnenna Freelon is a seven-time GRAMMY® Award nominee whose distinguished career spans over 35 years as a performer, recording artist, educator, and activist. Her latest album, Beneath the Skin, features 11 original compositions that reflect a deeply personal, feminine perspective. She is also the creator of the acclaimed podcast Great Grief, recognized as one of the top narrative podcasts on grief. A 2023 inductee into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame and recipient of the Women’s Jazz and Blues Association’s Jazz Masters Award, Freelon continues to inspire across artistic and social landscapes. Her forthcoming book, Beneath the Skin of Sorrow: Improvisations on Loss, is a collection of meditations on the practice of creativity within bereavement. The book will be released by Duke University Press in October 2025.
Kate McGarry
With eight critically acclaimed CDs and three GRAMMY® nominations, vocalist Kate McGarry has become recognized as a jazz artist who brings authenticity and vitality to every song regardless of genre. The Wall St. Journal calls her music, "Austere and elegant, an exceptionally appealing blend of folk and jazz" The New York Times pronounced it, “astute and sensitive". She has toured and recorded with jazz illuminati including Fred Hersch, Kurt Elling, Maria Schneider, John Hollenbeck, Billy Childs, Luciana Souza, Theo Bleckmann, and Tony® winner, Jason Robert Brown. During her decade in NYC, McGarry served as a Lincoln Center Teaching Artist, and as a U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassador for 3 years, traveling to the Far East, South America, and Eastern Europe, working with thousands of students in sixteen countries. As an educator, McGarry served for seven years as a Jazz Arts faculty member at The Manhattan School of Music. 2016 Downbeat Critics Poll named McGarry #1 Rising Star Female Vocalist. She has been featured on NPR's Jazz Set w/DeeDee Bridgwater, Piano Jazz w/Marion McPartland, All Things Considered, and a host of nationally syndicated radio shows. She resides in Durham, NC with her husband and musical partner of 20 years, guitarist Keith Ganz.
Lois Deloatch
With her 2024 recording, Love Always, vocalist and songwriter Lois Deloatch, marked thirty years in the music industry and six recordings as leader. She has been recognized internationally for her rich contralto voice, thought-provoking compositions, and distinctive blend of jazz, folk, blues, and spirituals. Deloatch has performed with music luminaries, written and lectured on arts and culture, and produced and hosted a jazz radio show. She is widely lauded as a storyteller and community advocate. She earned degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. Indy Week noted, "Lois is more than a jazz singer. Her fluid interpretations of a vocalist's role transcends being only a medium for the music. She often becomes a caretaker of the music's history, an advocate for its redemptive power."