When it comes to jazz, Katie Ernst is the trifecta, playing bass, performing as a vocalist, and teaching a future generation of musicians. It’s all in a day’s work for the 2007 graduate of Naperville North High School.
“As a musician, I never have the same day twice,” said the 27-year-old musician. “I freelance as a bassist and vocalist, direct the Wheaton College Jazz Ensemble during the school year, work with high school students at the Jazz Institute of Chicago, and compose and perform music for my own projects.”
Ernst got her start at age 9 playing the bass at Naper Elementary School, and began singing jazz at Birch Creek Music Performance Center at a summer camp before entering high school. While at North, she was a member of the Symphonic Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Madrigal Singers.
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“I had the incredible fortune of working with all of the music ensemble directors while I was in high school,” said Ernst, who lives in Chicago. “Dana Green, Jim Yarbrough, Dan Moore, Brian Van Kley and Jon Noworyta all had important roles in my musical development.”
Ernst said that, when she was “getting more serious about music studies,” North’s music staff encouraged and challenged her, both musically and personally.
“I remember having long talks with orchestra director Dana Green and choral director Jim Yarbrough during the time I was deciding on what college to attend,” she said. “Dan Moore gave me one of my first public opportunities to sing and play the bass simultaneously by arranging a song for bass/voice and big band during my senior year. I have nothing but gratitude and admiration for the music staff at Naperville North.”
And the admiration is mutual. Naperville North orchestra director Dana Green recalls Ernst as a student with “unflappable positivity” who had “a maturity and kindness well beyond her years.”
“Katie was ambitious, passionate and fueled by a genuinely eager desire to learn,” Green said. “As a musician, Katie was a standout I won’t ever forget. Her centered pitch, rock solid sense of time, and her intuitive ability to not only find but create groove make Katie one of the most outstanding musicians I have ever had the honor to work with.”
Ernst went on to graduate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, in 2011, and continued to pursue her passion for jazz. In 2013, she was one of 24 young artist-composers selected for the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program, an international jazz residency program at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Today, she regularly composes and performs with the band Twin Talk, and in 2015, officially released “Little Words,” an original album based on the poetry of Dorothy Parker.
“‘Little Words’ is the first recording that is out under my name,” Ernst said. “What started as one song and one poem became a much larger concept and journey for me as a composer.
“I found that I gravitated towards the more vulnerable side of Dorothy Parker, and I hope that listeners will identify with the tension between strength and vulnerability in her poems through my song settings.”
Green said he is not surprised by his former student’s success.
“When students declare their intentions to go into music and later enter the professional field, I usually have a mix of feelings,” the director said. “I know this path to be a difficult one as it’s incredibly competitive and the opportunities are few and far between.”
But that wasn’t the case when Ernst announced early on that she intended to pursue music as a career.
“When you meet Katie, you know success will follow her no matter what path she chooses,” Green said. “As a high school student, she could already play, teach and sing better than just about anyone already out in the field. I knew hers was a name that would find its way into newspapers, magazines and concert stages the world over.”
If you go
Katie Ernst will perform with her band Twin Talk at 8:30 p.m. Dec. 5 at Constellation in Chicago. For event details, visit http://www.constellation-chicago.com/.