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“If Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell ever were to have a love child, she would sound like IVAsophisticated, heartfelt, authentic, and deeply moving.”  – Tonemill blog

 

 “Supremely talented”  – Guitar World’s Acoustic Nation

 

IVA is a vocalist and songwriter with an ethereal quality to her powerful voice and a cinematic feel to her music. Her work is transporting, taking the listener into a world of imagery that evokes inspiration, longing, and peace. She is a versatile, eclectic artist, able to seamlessly move between genres due to the common thread of her dreamlike voice. Early on she signed her original music with Universal Sweden, performing on national TV and radio while making her debut at the Swedish Royal Opera. Now IVA is the youngest laureate of the Vasa Order’s Swedish American of the Year award. 

She’s been tapped “Who’s Next” by M Musicians Magazine, “supremely talented” by Guitar World’s Acoustic Nation, and featured in Billboard. She’s releasing her new record “Nobody’s Woman” this year after making a breakthrough with “Run” on Spotify and AAA radio. The new record is evocative of Weyes Blood and Margo Price .. with a little Aimee Mann sprinkled in. She lives between Brooklyn and outside of Philadelphia, where she leads her band. 

“This is a wonderful new release from IVA that captures her at the height of her artistic powers. Featuring the breathtaking vocal acrobatics for which she has become known, Run is a powerful artistic reflection on…the emotional struggles… and the search for transcendence… hugely uplifting and inspirational.” – Alex Faulkner, The Faulkner Review of “Run”, Jan 27, 2022

 

IVA captures an undeniable yearning spirit with “Run”. Quite beautifully, she updates psychedelic rock and dream pop in her own unique way… Sonically IVA draws from the stately presence of Nico and Beach House. Her voice proves to be the very heart and soul of the piece. Genre-wise… snippets of shoegaze, ambient, and electro enter into the equation giving it that living breathing aspect about it.” – Beachsloth Review of “Run”, Jan 25, 2022

 

Run” is produced by Jaron Olevsky (music director to Republic Records artist Amos Lee) and mixed by Nick Krill (The War on Drugs, Roar, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Spinto Band.)

FULL BIO

 

IVA’s ethereal vocals and heartfelt songwriting have carried her across two continents and successfully bridged musical genres—she is that rare crossover artist, a songwriter and bandleader, an art-song interpreter, and an opera singer.

Born Emily Samson Tepe, IVA trained at Princeton University, the Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music before moving to Stockholm, Sweden, on a Fulbright scholarship to study the music of her ancestors. She was poised for a career as a classical singer, winning rave reviews for her concerts abroad, until a chance meeting changed her direction: at the gym she got to chatting with the casting director of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, who invited her to sing on the show. Max Weinberg took notice and IVA returned many times as a singer and actress. She realized her voice suited more modern settings for music. 

Soon after, IVA signed with the New York/France-based label Vurse to record her first album of original music. A few years later she wrote her second album, “Ivolution”, with hit Swedish songwriting and production team Martin and Andreas Karlegård. The album, released on her own label, was picked up by Universal Sweden, heard on national radio and TV and given four star reviews and a writeup in Billboard magazine – all while IVA while making her debut at the Royal Opera of Stockholm, creating the role of Tamar in Sven-David Sandström’s Batseba.

After returning to the United States, IVA decided to put together her own band of Philadelphia area musicians, and released the EP “Leap” in July 2015, produced by Grammy winner Tim Sonnefeld. “Leap” has been featured on NPR and tastemaker stations around the U.S. IVA has toured the US with her band, while also performing classical repertoire in such eclectic venues as the Barnes Foundation, World Cafe Live, Lincoln Center, the New York Public Theater and the Aspen Music Festival. In 2015 she maintained her classical recital schedule as well, touring Europe with Julie Nishimura at the piano performing Chopin, Copeland, and Strauss.

In July of 2015, the Vasa Order of America named IVA “Swedish American of the Year” for her contributions to cultural exchange between the two countries, an honor previously bestowed upon actress E-Street Band member Nils Lofgren, actress and singer Ann Margaret, lunar astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist. She is the youngest honoree to date. 

In 2019 IVA released her fourth album, “Traitor”, recorded with her band The New Young and produced by Jaron Olevsky (Amos Lee) with arrangements by Trey Pollard (Spacebomb).  She was awarded a grant for the project from the Delaware Division of the Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts

IVA has spent the past years writing songs with Nashville-based artists Kim Richey, Adam Ollendorff, Kyle Ryan, Jeremy Lister, and Charlie Berry. She has been performing these songs at the piano and on her newly learned guitar for her live performances. This past year she recorded her next album, “Nobody’s Woman” with producers Ross Bellenoit and Jaron Olevsky as well as with her band and will release the record to radio in the Fall of 2022 thanks to the streaming success of the “Run”. She is also currently composing an opera, called “Inside Out”, addressing her experience with domestic abuse.

IVA has a thriving private studio, allowing singers, musicians, and performers to learn from multiple vocal techniques to find their authentic voice (ivavoicestudio.com). IVA is based in Brooklyn, New York, and Delaware, where she leads her Philadelphia band.