VANESSA RACCI - Jazz Voice Instructor and Career Readiness Coach

(Croton, Mohegan Lake and Pleasantville Locations)

Vanessa grew up in Westchester County, NY and started singing at the age of four. She fell in love with musical theater, joining the Westchester Dreamcoats at age twelve, which led to professional work at the Westchester Broadway Dinner Theater. At age 18, she was the winner of the prestigious Helen Hayes Award for her role as Christine in Phantom. In her twenties, she discovered her love for jazz, realizing that it was the music she grew up listening to with her Southern Italian grandfather (Sinatra, Dean Martin and the like). She built a repertoire of over one hundred standards and performed across the tri-state area with a jazz trio. After her grandfather passed away, Vanessa was inspired to keep his memory alive and reinvent Italian classics with jazz arrangements, launching her first album, Italiana Fresca (Fresh Italian) in 2017. Having worked in Marketing for Corporate America, Vanessa used her business savvy to "re-brand" herself as Vanessa Racci, the Jazzy Italian, dressing in vintage attire reminiscent of Sophia Loren and Connie Francis. Since then, she has toured across the country at over 50 Italian Festivals and jazz clubs (notably, Birdland Jazz Club NYC, San Gennaro NYC, Swing 46 NYC), her music has been played on over 20 jazz and Italian radio stations and reached #65 on the jazz charts. She is now working on her second album that celebrates the history of Italian influence on Jazz from 1917 New Orleans to modern day. She has studied with renowned Broadway vocal coach, Jackie Presti, Cabaret Legend, Marilyn Maye, and Jazz Voice at SUNY Purchase with Alexis Cole. Vanessa specializes in jazz, American Standards, Italian music, cabaret / musical theater and helping performers get gig ready with critical skills to brand and differentiate themselves, book shows, produce and promote them and have a successful, fulfilling performance career. Vanessa’s unique specialties include American Jazz Standards, Cabaret Performance, Italian Music as well as the “business” side of show business, to include branding and positioning, booking strategies, in person and virtual performance, performance promotion and social media.