A Downbeat award-winning vocalist, educator, and bandleader based in Denver, Colorado, Kelsey Wallner charms audiences with intimate, soulful, and inventive interpretations of jazz touchstones while placing the history of the music front and center. Starting with R&B and soul music, Kelsey began her performance career at a young age in Madison, Wisconsin. Studying the lineage of the music she most loved led her to vocalists Sarah Vaughan, Sheila Jordan, and Carmen McRae who would become her primary influences.