V. Shayne Frederick is a vocalist, pianist, recording artist, composer and educator with  performances spanning two decades. He has been featured at TEDx, NPR, a multitude of music fests, museums, and jazz clubs throughout the country, in addition to curating weekly musical series at South Jazz Kitchen and JG Skyhigh, Four Seasons Comcast within the last few years.

 

An ASCAP member, V. Shayne also scores for film and commercial. One animated short film he scored, “Testimony,” has garnered critical acclaim and screenings internationally, winning an award at the Black Star Film Festival. His musical production work has appeared in Visit Philadelphia commercials and other film media.

 

V. Shayne grew up on a church piano bench next to his vocalist-pianist mother in

rural North Carolina; his father performed contemporary Jazz saxophone in Philadelphia. V. Shayne’s first performances, however, were in the Dartmouth College Gospel Choir, for which he quickly rose to be the director by the time he was a sophomore.

 

Years later, V. Shayne has been cited by the Broad Street Review as “one of the

region’s busiest and best jazz singers,” appointed “one to watch” and a “shining light” by All About Jazz, and called “soulful” in Downbeat Magazine. According to WRTI, “Frederick […] could sing about breakfast cereal and make me believe in a higher power,” and according to WXPN, “his stunning baritone effortlessly soars; sometimes a seductive whisper, sometimes an exuberant belt.” Following his debut CD, Lovesome, and three subsequent EPs, Gleaming, Evergreen, and Blacklight, he is releasing a new album, King, 2022. These self-produced projects include his own musical arrangements alongside collaborative arrangements with instrumentalists, and were all recorded in Philadelphia recording studios, but have received international radio play.

He has performed as orator touring nationally with Ruth Naomi Floyd’s Frederick

Douglass Jazz Works, (“the gifted oration of V. Shayne Frederick whose believable vocal portrayal is exactly as I have imagined young Frederick would have sounded,” WHYY) and keyboardist/arranger/vocalist for former Philadelphia Poet Laureate Yolanda Wisher’s band, Yolanda Wisher & the Afroeaters, whose debut album will be released in 2022. His vocals were featured on recent projects by Nicholas Krolak (Voice Equals Power, Outside In Records) and Paul Giess (Hymns: Vol. 1, Ropeadope Records,) among a myriad feature vocal appearances.

 

Outside of a busy performance schedule, V. Shayne currently is an Adjunct

Professor at The University of the Arts and a preschool music teacher, while

having a part-time role with Philadelphia Contemporary as a co-curator for musical programming and Digital Communications Coordinator. He left a full time position as a Human Resources Manager with the City of Philadelphia in 2019, after 15 years of service.

 

V. Shayne was a Pew Artist Fellowship nominee during the 2021 season.