Feyza Eren - Home (2019)

Internationally acclaimed jazz vocalist, Feyza Eren, returned to her hometown of St. Louis from Istanbul, in 2011, after spending 15 years singing jazz with Turkey's finest musicians. In 2015, Feyza was featured in HEC-TV's, I Love Jazz with Don Wolff. She has performed with St. Louis' finest musicians at many notable venues in and around St. Louis including the Sheldon Concert Hall’s Notes from Home series, the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Illinois, the Chesterfield Jazz Festival in 2015, the Whitaker Music Festival and Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival in 2016, the SLAM Underground: Fleur event at the St. Louis Art Museum and the St. Louis Art Fair in 2017. She is a performing member of The Sheldon SOLID Music Project, an education program of the Sheldon Arts Foundation, offering students live theatrical performances to teach them about the science of sound. She very recently designed and performed a successful project titled, "A Dozen Divas" also at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Feyza also celebrated the release of 7 CD’s from 2014-2016 with Steve Davis, including their 2016 release, Imagination. They are currently working on a new CD due for release on June 15, 2019.

Feyza was born and raised in St. Louis where she graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. She studied classical violin for 8 years, and also performed in several musical and theatrical productions before turning professional. Feyza sang various styles of music and with various groups in St. Louis before moving to Istanbul in 1995.

In addition to her ventures in the jazz arena, she spent four years singing Turkish music with a popular ethnic/folk group, Ezginin Günlüğü, with which she recorded four albums: Ebruli, Hürriyete Doğru, Aşk Yüzünden, and Rüya, including singing a track on the group's 25th anniversary album, Çeyrek. She left the group in 2000 to pursue a solo career as a jazz vocalist. Feyza also recorded jingles as well as the theme song for the Turkish feature film, Oyunbozan. She sang the part of the lead female character of Kayley in the 1998 Warner Brother's Turkish language version of the animated film, The Quest for Camelot.

She performed with very reputable Turkish and international musicians at various venues and concert halls throughout Turkey. Feyza was the house talent at three 5 star hotels in Istanbul: The Ciragan Palace Kempinski, Park Hyatt and Swissotel The Bosphorus. She also performed at the Istanbul, Akbank, Ortaköy, Ankara, Afyon, Bodrum, Denizli and Izmir jazz festivals. She sang with the Ricky Ford Orchestra at the "Val de Jazz" festival in France and with the same group at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Club in Paris. Feyza also hosted two BET On Jazz programs in Istanbul and also the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2002 where she interviewed such jazz greats as Elvin Jones, Charles Lloyd, Archie Shepp, Tuck & Patti, and Chaka Khan among others. In 2000, she released her first solo album, I'm New, with arranger/composer Emin Fındıkoğlu, accompanied by Turkey's finest jazz musicians:

“For a first solo effort, this is very enjoyable and definitely promising...this CD may lead you to discover not only the graces of her singing, but some excellent players from Turkey, and it’s warmly recommended if you like new readings of great songs.” Francesco Martinelli

“...her first CD and one revealing her to be a singer gifted with the forthrightness of a Mildred Bailey or a Lee Wiley – someone who sings jazz, rather than settling for the label of jazz singer.” Paul Haines, “Five Spot on the Bosphorus,” CODA, The Journal of Jazz and Improvised Music, Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb 2001-02 " ​​​​