Sabrina Lastman (Uruguay/ Israel) is a New York based vocalist, performer, and composer born in Montevideo, Uruguay. Drawing from jazz, Latin American, and contemporary music, she often integrates extended vocal techniques. Described as “perennially eclectic and innovative” and as an artist who “embraces the audience with the sweetness of her voice,” Sabrina leads the Sabrina Lastman Quartet, and creates and performs interdisciplinary new music projects incorporating voice, sound, movement, and visuals – these include Dialogues of Silence, On Becoming (album released 2009), and River of Painted Birds.

The Sabrina Lastman Quartet is an innovative music project that brings together jazz, South American rhythms and contemporary music. This project reflects the many influences that Sabrina has experienced while living in her home country Uruguay, in Israel, and since 2005 in New York City. The Quartet plays original compositions and arrangements of music by Latin American composers like Ruben Rada, and Egberto Gismonti, being some of her compositions inspired by the poetry of renowned South American writers. She brings those experiences – so far away from each other – to an artistic unity, showing that cultural bridges can be built. As a vocalist, Sabrina expands the possibilities of the voice, finding a rich variety of sonorities, colors, and textures. Sabrina sings in Spanish, English and Portuguese, keeping in each language a deep meaning of text and voice quality.

Her album The Folds of the Soul was nominated by the Graffiti Award 2008 as one of the best jazz albums of the year, and it was considered of cultural interest by the Ministry of Culture and Education in Uruguay. She was invited to sing her compositions based on the poems of Uruguayan poet Idea Vilariño at the presentation of the book Idea Vilariño: La Vida Escrita. Sabrina was awarded grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) & New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

Sabrina has played with musicians such as Fernando Otero (Grammy Award Winner), Bakithi Kumalo, Meredith Monk, Tali Roth, Pablo Aslan (Grammy Award Nominated), Emilio Solla, Pedro Giraudo, David Silliman, Sasha Bogdanowitsch, The M6, Philip Hamilton’s VOICES, Gustavo Casenave, and Leonardo Suarez-Paz, among others.

Sabrina has toured internationally and performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall (NYC), Blue Note (NYC), Joe’s Pub (NYC), La Mama Moves Festival at La Mama Theatre (NYC), Latin Jazz Series Festival at Blues Alley Jazz (Whashington DC), ISSUE Project Room (NY), Juilliard (NYC), New York University, Yale University (CT), Rutgers University (NJ), Museo del Barrio (NYC), City University of New York, Classical Guitar Association of New York, Latino Cultural Festival at Queens Theatre in the Park (NY), Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Association Concerts (Israel), Abu Gosh Vocal Festival (Israel), Rimon School of Jazz & Contemporary Music (Israel), Felicja Blumental Music Center (Israel), Teatro Solis (Uruguay), Cafe Vinilo (Argentina), Centro Cultural de España (Uruguay), Sala Zitarrosa (Uruguay), Milestone Jazz Club (Israel), Master Class Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic at Jerusalem Music Centre, Shablul Jazz (Israel), Diaspora Museum of Tel Aviv (Israel), and Kfar Blum Brazilian Music Festival, among others.

She is the co-artistic director of Vital Vox: A Vocal Festival (www.vitalvoxfest.com) that explores the myriad power of the human voice in its solo and ensemble forms across a multitude of genres. It celebrates composer-performers in the vocal arts that stretch and expand the voice in new and original ways.

She graduated from The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in Israel.

Selected Quotes

Sabrina Lastman embraces the audience with the sweetness of her voice. It doesn’t matter if she sings in Spanish, English or Portuguese; her vocal timber, her powerful voice, her gesticulation and her concentration say a lot about this singer. Sabrina improvises very naturally, in a rhythmical and spontaneous way. She is unpredictable… Is not just ‘the voice as an instrument’, Sabrina is an instrument herself.
-Rodrigo Ribeiro – delUruguaY.net (Uruguay)

Ms. Lastman explores all the different colors and timbres the human voice can create without modification through electronics…a great exploration in what sounds a single person can make.
-Open Source Music (USA)

Perennially eclectic and innovative
-Alan Young. Lucid Culture (USA)

Sabrina Lastman premiered…River of Painted Birds, which she sang accompanied by electronics, some video and some drumming from David Silliman. The sound was rich, evocative and frequently lovely, with Lastman singing with mellifluous phrasing…
-George Grella. The Big City (USA)

Outstanding singer and composer. The ‘Folds of the Soul’ offers, from a very powerful individual perspective, original compositions and standards. Comprehending a wide musical spectrum…it reaches a cohesive discourse of solid creative rigor, with a clear orientation to avant-garde jazz. Sabrina sings with irreproachable technical display, and unusual expressive intensity.
-Sergio Piccirilli – El Intruso (Argentina/ USA)

Her imaginative sounds, her rich range of sound, her musical vocabulary, and her creativity are vital and profound.
-Anat Shamgar – The Jerusalem Academy of Music & Dance (Israel)

I have been deeply moved and impressed by her performance of different styles of music from jazz improvisation to tango and Brazilian tunes. I would honestly say that her level of musicianship and technical facility, apart from being world class, is both exceptional and rare. She has a unique approach and puts her own mark on every piece she plays whether she improvises or interprets an original composition.
Tali Roth – classical guitar player. Juilliard (USA)