Esther Miller

About Esther...

Described as “a cross between Shirley Horn and Annie Ross”, Esther Miller is one of South Africa’s leading singers. Born and raised in Port Elizabeth, SA’s friendly city, her love of music was started by a mixture of Nat King Cole & Perry Como records and singing in church and school choirs.

It was while studying medicine in Cape Town that she first encountered “live” jazz and quickly realised that a jazz beat had infinitely more appeal than that of the heart. She underwent a dramatic career change that led to her first professional performance in the UK for the BBC. Since switching over to jazz Esther has studied classical singing and credits the work of Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Blossom Dearie, Nat Cole and Frank Sinatra as having had an impact on her style.

Since starting with Gerry Spencer’s Jazz Cyclone she has worked with top South African musicians like Johnny Fourie, Winston Mankunku, Ezra and Duke Ngkukana, etc… she has also performed with Dave O’Higgins, Alan Skidmore, and Herb Ellis. Esther’s South African performances include numerous Jazz festivals, concert halls and television appearances.

She now performs in many different settings. Most recently her appearance at the 2004 Cork International Jazz Festival in Ireland where her performances were a huge success and The 2001, 2002 & 2004 Birmingham International Jazz Festivals where she won universal critical acclaim with sell-out performances. Esther is also a regular performer at top venues around the UK.

Recorded works include : her 1999 album “Say Hello to Esther” and 2002 album "Invitation" which features some of the UK's finest musicians, most notably trumpeter Bryan Corbett and Saxophonist Ian Ellis.

Esther has enjoyed a successful Jazz Services sponsored tour of the UK in Spring 2003 and undertook two highly acclaimed tours in 2004.

Client testimonials:

• University of Cape Town

  "Giving up medicine in favour of Jazz was clearly a wise move."