Karin Mensah

Karin Mensah (born 1965) is a classically trained singer from Cape Verde, whose preferred genre is jazz and traditional music from West Africa. She is a music educator who has served as the founder and director of the Accademia Superiore di Canto (Music Academy of Higher Education) in Verona, Italy, since 2004.

Biography Karin Mensah was born on 8 March 1965 in Dakar, Senegal, in a community of expatriated Cape Verdeans. In 1975, she entered the School of Arts for Dance and Song in Dakar and began singing professionally in theater and on television from age 11. Her father was an influence on her, as he enjoyed classical music and though it was an unusual genre in Africa, she grew up listening to Beethoven and opera.

After completion of her undergraduate education, she moved to Paris and studied at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, earning a degree in modern languages in 1988. She completed graduate work at the Orff Institute in Salzburg in a program offered in collaboration with the Società Italiana di Musica Elementare Orff-Schulwerk of Verona to learn educational methodology using the Orff approach. Simultaneously, she studied music theory at the Conservatorio Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco (also known as the Conservatory of Verona) and singing under Rita Orlandi-Malaspina and G. Mastiff, graduating in 1991. Subsequently, she completed several singing courses including introductory singing at the Conservatorio Francesco Antonio Bonporti of Riva del Garda (1991), basic singing with Maestro Rossi Castellani at the of Padua (1993), and vocal technique with Niranjan Jhaveri at the Jazz-India Vocal Institute in Bombay (1998).

Career After her completion of school, Mensah recorded several songs in various genres including blues, chanson, funk, jazz, Latin, and the traditional morna style of Cape Verde. "Ayo" sung in Wolof in the collection Salsa Mundo, Cabo Verde (Azzurra – 2002), and Souvenirs de Paris (Brisa – 2005).

She served as part of the jury in the Channel 5 television program Friends of Maria de Filippi, which was a program searching for new singing talent. Around the same time, she expanded her previous book and published a new edition with a different publisher. The exposure created from the television show drove sales of the book and it reached the third most sold Italian teaching manuals in 2009.

Discography Morna de Caboverde, Azzurra Music, 2000 La Vie en Rose & Les Plus Belles Chansons Françaises, Edm, 2001 Caboverde, Azzurra Music, 2002 La Premiere Heure, Azzurra Music, 2003 Soul Eternity, Azzurra Music, 2003 Jazz Band, Azzurra Music, 2010 Orizzonti, Egea Music, 2013

Publications