Jade Wesley

• Music International Grand Prix - Second Place Advanced Popular Voice Category
• Cambridge Music Competition - Gold Prize Winner, Great Musicianship Special Prize
• Jazz Aspen Afro Cuban Session 2024 - Vocalist
• Eclipse Utopia Festival 2024 - Vocals and Violin
• Birmingham International Music Competition - Special Mention
• NATS Texoma Classical Divison- Semifinalist

Hailed for her “deep rich tone” and having a “very expressive and engaging” stage presence by Voice Faculty from Southeastern University and the University of Montevallo, Jade Anaiah Wesley is a performer that strives for strictly excellence across all styles of music. Her music palette varies from playing violin with The Legendary Clark Sisters, Yolanda Adams, and other gospel/inspiration artists in Leon Lacey’s Black Tie Cinematic Symphony, and being internationally awarded across the United Kingdom and around the United States including New York, Dallas, and Washington D.C for singing both musical theatre and classical. Wesley also sang in the First Annual Afro Caribbean Session at the JAS Aspen Academy and was the first violinist to play with a big band throughout both sessions. She also has a duo containing herself and a pianist that frequently gigs around the DFW area that will soon be expanded to a trio and later a quartet. Having all these styles of music under her belt with both voice and violin is how Wesley will take you anywhere in the world with any emotion, simply with frequencies she creates from her vocal folds or her violin. Her upbringing includes a deep-rooted connection to gospel and musical theatre, which she transports into jazz along with her classical training.

In addition to performing on stage, Wesley has a strong online presence for promoting herself as a musician and an educator. Whether it is on her own social media or collaborating with others, the representation will be there. This includes being featured on Channel 8 WFAA Daily Morning News for the day after the Oscars Morning Special singing Oscar-nominated and winning songs. On her social media, Wesley does various multi-instrument covers that she records and produces and does video editing. Recording and producing have blossomed into a passion as she creates her album. Wesley has been teaching private lessons since the summer of 2022. She is currently a substitute teacher for voice, violin, piano, and music theory at NoteWise Music Academy. Her teaching philosophy includes that she will cater to her students’ needs and adjust to each student individually while making music fun. Wesley learns from her students just as much as they learn from her.

Wesley is in her last semester studying Vocal Performance with a focus in Violin at the University of North Texas College of Music under the instruction of Dr. Stephen Morscheck and Professor Philip Lewis. Originally from Glassboro, NJ, Wesley started her studies at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in Orchestral Music Education and Violin Performance before transferring to UNT. At North Texas, she is currently in UNT’s Premier Choir, A Cappella, and plays violin in the world’s first Jazz String Ensemble famously led by Grammy Winner Professor Scott Tixier. Besides frequently gigging around the East Coast and DFW area, next up for Wesley is her senior recital Homecoming: Breaking the Stereotype on April 25th, 2025 at 5:00 pm in Voertman Hall. Featuring a majority of black composers, this recital is inspired by Beyoncé’s History-Making Coachella Performance in 2018.