Monica Hatch - Biography
Monica studied at Juilliard with the renowned operatic soprano, Eleanor Steber. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at The Eastman School of Music and earned her Masters at New England Conservatory.
Although she was a classical voice major at Eastman, she was often invited to perform with the Eastman jazz ensembles and studio orchestra and eventually won the DownBeat Jazz Vocal Soloist award in the college division.
Born and raised in Connecticut in a family of nine children, Monica Hatch was drawn to both classical and jazz music from and early age. Influenced by her parents’ love of music (her father was a pianist and fiddler, her mother was a soprano in the church choir), she listened to her father’s recordings of Meade Lux Lewis, Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck while learning the music of Handel, Vivaldi, Schubert and more.
Monica was also introduced to many other jazz legends during her teen years including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Mary Lou Williams, Paul Desmond, Wes Montgomery, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard and more. At the same time she began studying piano, flute and recorder and sang solos in school choruses and played with the instrumental ensembles. Her mother urged her to join the church choir at the age of 12 where her singing abilities were quickly recognized as she sang solos for weddings and church services.
After High School, a field trip to see Madame Butterfly at the New York City Opera with her first voice teacher, Jack Litten, inspired Monica to pursue her singing career more seriously. Litten prepared Monica for her auditions having her sing Mozart’s “Ach ich fuhls”, Handel’s “Rejoice Greatly” and Scarlatti’s “Le Violette”. She was accepted to several prestigious conservatories including Carnegie Mellon, The Hartt School, and Ithaca College and Juilliard.
“A coloratura soprano with impeccable phrasing, clear, crystalline tone, and absolute pitch. With her classical background, Hatch not only brings a technically advanced set of vocal chords to her work, but an appreciation of the lyrics of the material she sings. She conveys a sense of warmth in her interpretations never letting her naturally strong voice overwhelm the material.” -
David Nathan, Allmusic.com
