Eden Girma - Scholars - The Gordon Parks Foundation

Eden Girma, 2014 YoungArts Winner in Jazz Voice, is a senior at Middleton High School.  Despite growing up in a family with no musical experience, she has been supported in all her musical endeavors, beginning piano studies at age 5 and joining her first choir at age 8.  Her performances in her hometown Madison, Wisconsin have ranged the classical and jazz genres.  In 2012, she was one of 80 students throughout Wisconsin to be accepted into the Wisconsin State Honors Treble Choir, which performed at the Capitol Theater in Madison’s Overture Center.  Additionally, Eden competes annually in the Wisconsin School Music Association’s state solo and ensemble festival, receiving the exemplary soloist award in both classical piano and voice.  Her jazz career began at Middleton High School, where she auditioned into the upperclassman jazz ensemble as a pianist.  She was then selected as a member of the Madison High School Jazz All-Stars, a group of advanced high school jazz musicians organized by Edgewood College professor Dan Wallach.  With the All-Stars, Eden sang and performed on piano at the Madison Isthmus Jazz Festival in 2013 alongside celebrated pianist Anthony Wonsey.  She was also chosen by audition to perform in the University of Wisconsin-Madison High School Honors Jazz Ensemble, which was under the direction of Professor Johannes Wallmann, director of Jazz Studies at the University.