Samara Joy ’21 on the TODAY Show
Joy delivers a sultry “Stardust” valentine, performing one of her favorite standards.
Samara Joy ’21 (Jazz studies) performed “Stardust” on NBC’s TODAY Show, off her self-titled album, accompanied by Visiting Affiliate Artist Pasquale Grasso on guitar.
Joy is not only a jazz sensation, but a TIkTok one as well with over 116k followers.
While still a student at Purchase, and using her last name McLendon, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, a prestigious award known as the Sassy.
On the occasion of her album release last fall, Downbeat wrote, “Samara Joy is a self-possessed, deeply emotive vocalist, with power that usually takes a lot of living to master. But the Purchase College graduate has got it in spades.” Read the full review here.