April Varner
About
April Varner is a jazz vocalist, composer, and arranger based in New York City. Originally from Toledo, Ohio, she won the 2023 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition and received a 2024 Honorable Mention in the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Competition. Her debut album "April" (2024, Cellar Live) received a four-star review in DownBeat and was included in both DownBeat's and The New York City Jazz Record's "Best Albums of 2024" lists. Varner performs regularly at venues including Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center and has headlined the Longjumeau Jazz Festival in France. She has toured with Postmodern Jukebox and collaborated with artists including Emmet Cohen, Chico Pinheiro, and Nicole Zuraitis. Her Ella Fitzgerald tribute album "Ella" is scheduled for release in March 2026 on Cellar Live.
Trivia
At age five, April Varner confidently told her parents "I am music," a declaration that has become a recurring motif in her artistic identity. Her debut album "April" is a concept record consisting entirely of songs with the word "April" in the title. Varner has amassed multiple viral videos with over one million views each on social media, featuring solo transcriptions, original vocalese arrangements, and a cappella renditions of Great American Songbook standards.
Early Life
April Varner was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. She began piano studies with her grandmother at age six and started classical voice lessons at the University of Toledo at age eight. As a youth she competed in vocal, musical theatre, drama, and piano at local, regional, national, and international levels. At age sixteen, she made her Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall after winning first place in the American Protégé International Vocal Competition. She also performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was a guest vocalist with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Varner entered Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music as a classical vocal performance major before switching to jazz studies. She graduated with a B.M. in Jazz Studies in 2020 and earned an M.M. in Jazz Voice Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in 2022, studying under Theo Bleckmann.