Miriam Ast is a German jazz singer, saxophonist, composer and teacher based in London.She is a senior lecturer at Leeds College of Music and graduated with an MA with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in July 2016. Last year, she performed as a semi-finalist in the Shure Montreux Voice Competition in Switzerland.

In May 2017, she received the Best Vocalist Prize with her duo together with Spanish pianist Victor Gutierrez at the Bucharest International Jazz Competition. They recorded their first album ‘Secret Songs’ in August 2017 and did a successful Kickstarter campaign for the release of their debut album in 2018.Miriam also leads a quintet with some of the most promising up-and-coming musicians from the London jazz scene with whom she performs her original compositions. Her music is inspired by folk, free improvisation and modern jazz.

Miriam has been a member of the acclaimed London Vocal Project under direction of Pete Churchill since 2015 and had the chance to perform with them at the EFG London Jazz Festival, Cambridge Jazz Festival as well as Pizza Express Jazz Club, the Vortex Jazz Club and the 606 Club in London. Their latest project is Miles Ahead, a vocal adaptation of the instrumental album by Gil Evans in collaboration with the famous scat-singerJon Hendricks. They had the unique opportunity to perform the world-premiere of Miles Ahead in Jon`s presence in New York last February.

Whilst living in Germany, Miriam graduated with a Bachelors in jazz saxophone and singing from the conservatoire in Mainz and was a member of the prestigious German National Jazz Orchestra (BuJazzO). She was lucky to perform with established musicians on German jazz scene such as bass player Vitold Rek, echo jazz awardee Sebastian Sternal, pianist Peter Reiter and saxophonist Gerd Dudek. She is a featured singer with the German band Klezmers Techter.