Pianist, singer/song-writer Afra Kane, boasts a great variety of musical and cultural backgrounds: her influences span from Classical music, Jazz, Motown, Gospel and afro-gospel. Born in Italy from a Nigerian background into a Christian family, she was encouraged by her mother to take piano lessons in order to accompany the worship service at her Church.
Soon, she was introduced into an education of classical piano that carried on throughout her childhood and her life. She was admitted in various Conservatoires around Europe, respectively in Vicenza, Italy, in Cardiff at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève in Switzerland, where she got a degree in piano performance. During this time, she attended numerous masterclasses with renoun pianists such as Stephen Kovacevich, Alexandre Madjzar, Federico Colli and Peter Nagy and took part in a few collaborations with chamber ensembles and orchestras as a soloist, performing piano concertos by Mozart, Saint-Saens and Gershwin.
On a parallel level what seemed to be a very demanding journey on her classical music studies, led her to free herself through singing and listening to a variety of artists who would later inspire her to write her on songs: Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Otis Redding to name a few. After moving to Switzerland in 2015 she decides to start her career as a singer-songwriter, composing and performing on both piano and voice her own songs.
This lead to two singles No pain, No gain(2016) and Stand Still (2016) and Ep "Scorpio" (2019) and many live performances across Switzerland and Italy. Her music is a beautiful blend of Jazz nuances, inscribed into classical influences, balanced by a soulful and powerful voice, used to express melancholy and depth.
"This Switzerland-based Italian-Nigerian singer and pianist captured the jury's attention with her voice and her compositions which draw on many influences, from classical music to gospel."
Montreux Jazz Artist Foundation
