Julia Keefe | 2021 Native Launchpad Artist
Julia earned her B.A. in Music from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in 2012, graduating with honors. She taught jazz voice at Gonzaga University and was a guest clinician at North Idaho college at Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival before deciding to relocate to New York City. She earned her Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music in 2019, under the tutelage of Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Jo Lawry, Stefon Harris, and Phil Markowitz.
Julia also has a passion for Indigenous film and was a featured artist in Sterlin Harjo’s critically acclaimed documentary, Love and Fury. Her first feature film, Virginia Minnesota, was the closing feature at the Catalina Film Festival in 2018. She is the Executive Director of the Board for One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival, an annual non-profit festival in Spokane, showcasing the diversity and vitality of contemporary Native art in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Julia’s recent recording, Nobody Else But Me, was released to glowing reviews. In addition to rehearsing for an upcoming album, she is currently working with Delbert Anderson, Mali Obomsawin, Nicholas Lucero, Nokosee Fields, and the Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest on a new project titled Welcome to Indian Country, a celebration of Native culture through seven songs and seven stories.
Julia has performed with world-class musicians including Jim McNeely, Emmet Cohen, Billy Test, Dan Hearle, Andreas Oberg, Bob Bowman, Clipper Anderson, Jack Mouse, and the Lionel Hampton Big Band, among many others.