The PADX England Delegation
PADX Goes to WOMEX
The the second PADX delegation of 2024 have made their way to Manchester, England to participate in WOMEX — Worldwide Music Expo. WOMEX is the biggest conference of the global music scene and the leading networking platform for the world music industry, WOMEX brings together over 2,600 performing arts professionals from 90 countries for five days of networking, showcasing, connection, and learning.
PADX is an initiative of the Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) program, developed to expand international markets and generate overseas touring opportunities for U.S. performing artists. PADX launched in September 2022 thanks to a new partnership and $300,000 grant award from the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration’s (ITA) Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) which facilitates relationship-building with international partners and provides travel support for delegations of artists to participate in overseas conferences and events. Learn more about PADX here.
Meet the PADX England Delegation
Jennifer Grimm | American Jazz Vocalist
Jennifer Grimm is an American Jazz Vocalist, Composer, and Lyricist. An unparalleled live performer, Grimm was born into America’s last standing vaudeville family, performing everywhere from the casinos of Las Vegas to New York’s Birdland Jazz Club and Carnegie Hall. As a composer, recording artist, and producer, Grimm has found success with her original music placements on NBC, UNIVERSAL, SONY, and many more.
Grimm’s performance style harkens back to the Classic American Jazz Era of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin, with an elegance and ease on stage that can only be earned from a lifelong relationship with entertainment.
Image courtesy of Jena Carlin Creative
Jesús Muñoz | Choreographer & Musical Arranger
Jesús Muñoz is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA), has created a physical and sonic vocabulary that intersects Flamenco with Latin, Jazz and Hip-hop, reflecting the backgrounds of company artists and audiences. Performance highlights include the Ford Theatre in Los Angeles, the Cowles Center in Minneapolis, Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall, Detroit Institute for the Arts, Jazz Cafe at Music Hall, Arvada Amphitheatre, along with 13 seasons at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. In addition to creating world-class concerts, Jesús Muñoz Flamenco programs include master and introductory workshops, residencies and multi-generational and cultural outreach.
Image courtesy of Jesús Muñoz
Queen Esther | Black Americana & Jazz
Queen Esther was raised in the unapologetically Black bastion of Atlanta, Georgia – ensconced in the vibrancy of the Black Arts Movement and the sonic undertow of the traditional Black church – while rooted in Charleston, South Carolina’s culturally rich and enigmatic Lowcountry, a region with African traditions and Black folkways that span centuries and deeply inform her work, Queen Esther embraces lost American history and wide-ranging and ever changing aural influences, while leaning heavily on the bluing of the note, creating reclamation-driven Black Americana. Her Southern penchant for storytelling entwines historical truths with personal anecdotes, blurring the past and present, embracing the connectedness of the human spirit.
Image courtesy of Steven Rosen
Staci Griesbach | Singer-Songwriter | Jazz & Americana
Staci Griesbach is a Los Angeles-based vocalist with a Signature Songbook Series of albums reimagining the Great American Songbook of Country Music in the style of Jazz with a growing catalog of original compositions. Currently, Griesbach just released “Asilomar,” an original bossa-nova inspired single.
Described as having “an instrument pitched between Rosemary Clooney sass and Diana Krall smokiness,” (Milwaukee Shepherd-Express), Griesbach has performed at Carnegie Hall (NYC), the Country Music Hall of Fame (Nashville), Catalina Jazz Club and Feinstein’s at Vitello’s (Los Angeles). Rolling Stone premiered “Walkin’ After Midnight” from her debut album, My Patsy Cline Songbook, calling it “gorgeous.” In 2020, Griesbach was selected for the SXSW Music Festival as a Showcasing Artist.
Image courtesy of Kim Thiel
Thea Hopkins | Red Roots Americana
Thea Hopkins is member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe of Martha’s Vineyard MA, internationally touring performing songwriter Thea Hopkins calls her music - Red Roots Americana. Her new album, "Here In Our World", to be released in January 2025, will feature original songs, concerning Indigenous and non-Indigenous topics. With her astute and sensitive eye for detail, she has an almost painterly approach to the songwriting process, which she uses to great effectiveness, whether writing of personal experiences or political events in the greater world. "A standout" -- Washington Post "The most convincing perpetuator of the haunting art of Nick Drake" -- www.paris-move.com
Image courtesy of Jeff Fasano