An award-winning jazz singer is set to perform in Helmsley this month.

Zoe Gilby, a jazz artist from , is touring with her band and will perform at Helmsley Arts Centre on Saturday, June 25.

Zoe won Jazz Vocalist of the Year in 2019 at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, which celebrates the talent of the jazz scene throughout the UK.

She said: “I love to share our music with new audiences. I have been to Pickering and Malton to perform but I’ve never visited Helmsley before and Helmsley Arts Centre looks like a fantastic venue too.”

Zoe has had links to jazz music from an early age and she credits some of its most distinguished artists as her inspiration.

“I was really lucky in that my father was a jazz trumpeter and arranger and my mother is huge fan of jazz so I grew up with it,” says Zoe.

“I heard Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae and I fell in love with not just their voices but their freedom to sound unique and to portray a song in their own style. That was what really appealed to me when I started my own journey as a jazz singer.”

Zoe has toured across the globe during her career performing at various venues in the UK and internationally.

She said: “I’ve been on the road a lot during my singing career to promote an album or a project at jazz festivals and clubs all over the UK and internationally too like China, Ukraine, Morocco, Crete, Finland and Romania. I’m really looking forward to visiting Helmsley and seeing it’s history and character, it is a truly beautiful part of the country.”

The Zoe Gilby Jazz Quartet will perform at Helmsley Arts Centre on June 25 from 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £13 and £6.50 for under 18s.

For booking information, visit www.helmsleyarts.co.uk/whats-on/the-zoe-gilby-jazz-quartet