SUNDAY SERENADES: CASSANDRE MCKINLEY

The Sunday Serenades series features matinee performances filled with jazz, swing, big band, and Broadway favorites—a perfect way to unwind and enjoy world-class musicianship.

Boston native, Cassandre McKinley, is a singer, recording artist, composer, producer, vocal coach and educator. As an artist and singer, she channels a vast spectrum of genres that include Soul, Jazz, Blues, R&B, Pop and Country and has unwittingly unified them into a singular sound that is primitively hers. McKinley’s consensual freedom from stylistic boundaries has become her signature approach to making music. She is simply presenting a rich and acutely diversified mix of music by way of a sublime voice and a veritable gift for storytelling.

In her early youth, McKinley’s burgeoning career started with private voice lessons, intensive studies in dance, theater and vocal performance and by 19, after attending Boston Conservatory, she was signed with an agent and entrenched in her work as an actor, singer, dance, print model and voice over artist.

Today, McKinley is deeply rooted in a recording career, having released 5 solo albums, and is revered for her spirited and impassioned live performances illustrating evidentially her extensive range and vocal power. Her most notable collaborations include those with Peter Eldridge (New York Voices), Duke Levine, Dave Mattacks, Clay Osborne, Bernard Purdie, Herb Pomeroy. She appeared as a regular featured artist alongside the great J. Geils in his named Jazz & Blues Review to sold out audiences throughout New England.  

McKinley’s revealed a defined signature sound on her 2006 MAXJAZZ release “Til Tomorrow – Remembering Marvin Gaye” (MackAvenue) which generated an emphatic buzz of curiosity about the artist. JazzTimes Magazine hailed the work as “a rich, sensual salute” and institutionalized her national and international relevance as a prominent and salient new artist. Her 2018 release “Dragonfly” exhibits the same persuasive and robust vocal interpretations she has become celebrated for. Read more about it…

Her music can now be heard on hundreds of national and international radio stations, cable and internet music outlets including iHeartRadio, Spotify, Pandora and XM Radio.

Currently, she is an Associate Professor in the Voice Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston and Berklee Online. She also continues to tour regularly as a solo artist and featured as a guest artist.