WEAVING THE DREAM: CORNISH COLLEGE PROFESSOR AND GRAMMY®-WINNER JOHNAYE KENDRICK
- Myah Rose Paden
- Oct 23
- 6 min read
by Myah Rose Paden
More than a musician—Johnaye Kendrick is an alchemist of sound, transmuting music into a vehicle for joy, empowerment, inspiration, and healing.
A mother of twins and an exemplar multihyphenate, Kendrick wears many fabulous hats, from her early accolades as a student at Western Michigan University and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz to her solo career by which she showcases her consummate musicianship as an artist, composer, producer, and arranger through her self-founded johnygirl label. A spirited collaborator, she brings her unique artistic colors and technical mastery to her critically acclaimed vocal supergroup, säje – most recently earning their second GRAMMY® Award at the 2025 ceremony.
But awards and accolades are just one piece of Kendrick’s ever-expanding artistic identity. Offstage, you can find her wearing her professor hat in the classrooms of the Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University, mentoring the next generation of artists and music professionals, or you might experience Kendrick as a sound healer, bathing groups of curious participants in the restorative power of sound and vibration in a small studio at the Urban Grace Church of Tacoma. In an era of state-sponsored discontent and disconnection, Johnaye Kendrick and her offerings in all their forms are a welcome balm for the injured soul.
However you find her, Johnaye Kendrick refuses to be defined by the rigid boxes of her jobs. Instead, she moves through the world as a self-proclaimed “Goddess of Love and Light,” insistent that every note she performs and writes is infused with her mission to create and spread joy and healing through sound.
Kendrick told Seattle Magazine that she sees her life as a “tailored dream”—a stream of opportunities carried to her via some mixture of fate, discernment, and preparation to “align with [her] values and nurture [her] soul.” Her story so far certainly reads like a very sweet dream.
A West Coast native, Johnaye Kendrick was born and raised in San Diego, CA, where her music education started young with piano and violin lessons, but ultimately it was singing–the music of the body–which called her to her high school vocal jazz group—and to a pivotal discovery of jazz icon Sarah Vaughan. Buying as many of Vaughan’s recordings as she could get her hands and ears on, Kendrick saw in Vaughan a North Star towards the world of jazz, and she would follow that star throughout her studies in music at Western Michigan University, where she learned to find her own voice through diligent study and devotion to her craft.
It would not take long before Johnaye Kendrick’s own starlight would begin to shine beyond the university. At WMU, Kendrick received a DownBeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist. After graduating in 2005, she was accepted to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in New Orleans, where she earned an Artist Diploma and later a Master’s degree from Loyola University. There, Kendrick would cut her teeth with the aid of mentors and collaborators along the way, including modern jazz legends like Terence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Danilo Perez, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Brian Blade.
Cosigns and college, while valuable, are only part of Kendrick’s dreamlike story. After years of performing alongside jazz greats like Nicholas Payton and Ellis Marsalis, Johnaye Kendrick began carving her own path as a solo artist when she settled in the Pacific Northwest.
Immune to the infamous “Seattle Freeze,” Kendrick found Seattle and its musical community to be a warm and welcoming place to set down roots. In 2014, she founded her own independent music label johnygirl records—free of the constraints of the commercial music industry–and she entered the music world on her own terms with her debut album Here, followed by her 2018 record Flying. Produced, arranged, and performed by Kendrick, both albums were deeply personal exhibits of her musical DNA.
To experience Johnaye Kendrick perform is to be taken into her world of feeling and expressive energy. Whether she is reimagining a well-worn standard tune or delivering original melodies woven with threads of her own spirit, she manifests a waveform of peace and presence through the vibrations of her voice and her instruments—vibrations magnified four times over in the group säje.
A sisterhood of song in colorful coordinated glam, säje (rhyming with beige and a stylized acronym of the group members’ first initials) is the independent formation of four established women in the music industry—Sara Gazarek, Erin Bentlage, Amanda Taylor, and, of course, Johnaye Kendrick. Combining the technical talents of four composer-vocalists with a shared love for all the beauty and nuance of unapologetic femininity, säje is more than a collaboration; it’s a communion.
Formed in 2018, the four women of säje were busy with their own career successes and lives when the idea emerged to unify their talents. As if guided by the spirit of their own name, the quartet made a modern-day desert pilgrimage for a weekend retreat in Palm Springs to discover what they could create, and what resulted was nothing short of magic.
Their first (and at the time only) original song, “Desert Song,” was the product of that time spent arranging, songwriting, and improvising. The group would debut in 2020, and in the midst of a global pandemic and lockdown, to the shock of the members of säje who received the news via Zoom call, the original track “Desert Song” earned them their first of four eventual GRAMMY® nominations. Call it a sign or the predictable result of lifelong commitment to high-quality craft and artistic integrity—for the members of säje, it was fuel for the fires of their own passions.
Within säje, Kendrick brings an essential perspective shaped not only by her experiences as a seasoned musician but also, critically, as the only Black member of the group. Necessarily, the white members of säje have never shied away from the reality of the group’s musical influences rooted in Black American music and its rich legacy, but Kendrick’s placement in the group adds a level of lived experience that can only be felt. Nowhere is that more clear than in “Never You Mind,” an original composition by Kendrick honoring Black American victims of police brutality, naming Michael Brown and Laquan McDonald. For Kendrick’s bandmates, adapting the song for the group was an act of alliance with Kendrick on a deep level, using their own names and voices to uplift and honor her own while underscoring their shared commitment to using music as a vehicle for empathy and justice. Kendrick emerges as the spiritual center—deeply tapped into the historical lineage of Black American music as social commentary and sacred sound.
"To experience Johnaye Kendrick perform is to be taken into her world of feeling and expressive energy. Whether she is reimagining a well-worn standard tune or delivering original melodies woven with threads of her own spirit, she manifests a waveform of peace and presence through the vibrations of her voice and her instruments..."
Cut to Johnaye Kendrick, glittering and goddess-like in a crown of quartz crystals and jewels, on the 2025 GRAMMY® stage accepting the säje’s GRAMMY® Award for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for the track “Alma.” Literally jumping for joy, Kendrick and her fellow säje members (sans Amanda Taylor who was certainly attending in spirit) beamed with gratitude as they thanked not only their fellow recording artist, violinist Regina Carter, but also the many familial voices featured on the track including Kendrick’s own twin daughters Adora and Nola, continuing Kendrick’s overarching mission to create a legacy of music, connection, and community for generations to come. The speech concluded with a message of compassion and restoration for those affected by the tragic LA fires—a moment emblematic of the group’s core ethos, which utilizes their voices for healing and hope.
Underneath international acclaim and thunderous applause, the radiating light of Johnaye Kendrick’s compassionate soul is the quiet heartbeat of her work. Through music, Kendrick creates within herself a conduit for healing, joy, peace, and power. Her commitment to setting ego aside in favor of fostering well-being through sound is clear whether you meet in the classroom at Cornish College, in an intimate sound therapy session at Tacoma’s Urban Grace Church, in the harmonies of säje amid a sea of concertgoers, or on the street as simply Johnaye.
For Johnaye Kendrick, each milestone is an affirmation, each melody a prayer, and her work—however it manifests—is transformative in all its iterations past, present, and future. In the throes of yet another social and political cataclysm marring the history of the world, Johnaye Kendrick offers the simplicity of stillness and serenity through song. Her “tailored dream” of a life expands to envelop us all in the weave, and we here in Seattle are just happy she has chosen to leave a loose thread of inspiration for us to tailor our own dreams, too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Myah Rose Paden (she/they) is a passionate mezzo-soprano and speaker originally from Columbus, GA, now thriving in Seattle, WA, where they currently host on Jazz24 (of KNKX). With a master’s degree from the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Myah has graced stages in both mainstage and chamber operas. Their journey led them to Seattle as the inaugural Announcing Fellow for Classical KING FM during the 2022 Seattle Opera Arts Fellowship. Myah’s vibrant presence at Seattle Opera includes several performances with the Seattle Opera Chorus, Opera On Tap, Seattle Opera's Creation Lab, and the upcoming school tour production of Earth to Kenzie. Alongside their musical life, they host events and present pre-show lectures at the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. They also earned recognition as a District Finalist in the 2022-23 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.