Vita

Imke Johanne Spöring, born in 1981, graduated in jazz singing from the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in 2005. Her teachers included Romy Camerun, Matthias Nadolny, David Friesen and Richie Beirach. Travels all around the world and tours of Brazil, Bolivia and Lebanon gave her a wealth of experiences with nature, people and music.

With various jazz groups and vocal ensembles, for which she sings and composes, she has given numerous concerts in Germany and abroad. She has performed at the Essen Philharmonie, the Moers Festival, jazzahead! and Vokal Total in Graz, among others, and has shared the stage with greats such as Randy Brecker. Imke sings and writes lyrics in German, Spanish, French, Portuguese and English, and is just as convincing when interpreting songs in Arabic, Icelandic, Bulgarian and Papiamento, among others.

In recent years, alongside her concert work, she has been active as a vocal coach, choir director and arranger. In this role she contributed to productions of the Essener Volksbühne and the Theater Duisburg. In 2013 she founded the two Essen pop and jazz choirs URBAN VOICES I + II, which she has led successfully ever since and for which she writes the arrangements.

From 2010 to 2015 she served on the volunteer board of Jazz Offensive Essen e.V.

From 2016 to 2020 she curated the concert series GRENZGÄNGE at the KUBIG400 Pavilion (Grugapark, Essen).

In 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 she took part in the German Choral Association’s “Vocal Jazz Seminar” training programme, which brought her into inspiring exchange with renowned international choir directors and arrangers, among them Jim Daus Hjernøe (“Vox North”), Kim Nazarian (“New York Voices”) and Kerry Marsh.

In 2017 she also founded the Vokalorchester NRW, an experimental vocal collective uniting 14 professional singers from five different cities. Until 2021 she composed, arranged, conducted and sang in this ensemble, and handled board, bookkeeping and organisational work.

Inspired by a joint performance with Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea in 2013, Imke has in recent years been experimenting with her project “solo & pur”, a concept for solo voice without any electronics or loop station. Her newest project is the “Kozmic Trio”, an encounter of jazz and international folk music, which she realises together with André Meisner (duduk) and Matthias Dymke (piano).

Last but not least, in 2020 Imke gave her first reading of her own texts, under the title “Reisefieber” (“Travel Fever”).

CD productions

Gallery