BIO

Yumi Ito (1990) is a Swiss musician, composer and actress with Polish-Japanese roots, living in Basel, Switzerland. In 2015, she completed the Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Singing at the Zurich University of the Arts with classes with Marianne Racine, Chris Wiesendanger and Omri Ziegele. She completed her master's degree in Jazz vocals and composition at Guillermo Klein, Mark Turner, Jorge Rossy, Larry Grenadier, Lisette Spinnler and Jeff Ballard.

2017 Ito was elected by Wolfgang Muthspiel to participate in the prestigious Focus Year Band program and was a part of the eight-member ensemble for a year. The international band was coached weekly by musicians such as Dave Holland, Avishai Cohen, Django Bates, Steve Swallow, Lionel Loueke and Kurt Rosenwinkel and performed at the Opus Jazz Club Budapest, Porgy and Bess Vienna, Off Beat Festival to name a few.

As a bandleader, sidewoman and arranger, Yumi Ito works in jazz, theater, film music and free improvisation. Yumi has recorded three albums under her name: "Intertwined" (2016, Unit Records), "Ypsilon" (2017, For What Records) and "Yumi Ito Orchestra", which will be published in 2020. Her main projects include the eleven-member Yumi Ito Orchestra, Yumi Ito Quartet and the duo of Polish guitarist Szymon Mika. She is musician, composer and actress in the actual music-theatre production "VER-DING" from Theater Texte und Töne Sissach. She has toured in Iceland, Japan, Brazil, Poland, France, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Czech Republic and Switzerland.

As part of a compositional residency, Yumi Ito was invited twice to East of Iceland in August 2018 and June 2019 to work on the music for her current projects. She is a winner of the Montreux Jazz Vocal Competition 2015, performed with the DKSJ Band 2016 under the baton of Arthur Hnatek, and became a member of the winner band of the generation Frauenfeld Band in the following summer 2017 with trombonist and composer Adrian Mears toured through Swiss jazz clubs. In 2016 she was invited by Yaron Herman to the 50th Montreux Jazz Festival to perform her own compositions with Ziv Ravitz and Joe Martin. In the summer of 2013, Ito also studied improvisation with Gretchen Parlato, Bob Stoloff, Jay Clayton, and Bobby McFerrin during a two-month stay in New York.

Current Projects

Yumi Ito (solo / with band)

Yumi Ito Orchestra

Yumi Ito & Szymon Mika Duo

Current Projects as sidewoman

Der Grosse Bär

Luca Sisera's DEER HAVEN

Vaclav Palka's Poens.

Niko Seibold's European Song