Tatiana Mayfield Brown
Assistant Professor, Contemporary Popular Music
303-871-6371 (Office)
https://www.tatianamayfield.com
Newman Performing Arts Center, 2344 East Iliff Ave. Denver, CO 80208
Specialization(s)
music, Jazz, Voice
Professional Biography
Refreshing and beautiful are how many have described the voice and persona of Tatiana Mayfield Brown, (known artistically as Tatiana LadyMay Mayfield), a jazz vocalist, musician, composer, and educator from Fort Worth, Texas. “LadyMay” (as she has been named) has been singing and playing music since the tender age of thirteen. Since then, she has performed in various venues and festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad, which in turn have earned her rave reviews from listeners and musicians in addition to numerous awards.
In 2023, LadyMay was named as a grant awardee for the “Next Jazz Legacy” program created by NEA Jazz Master, Terri Lyne Carrington in partnership with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and New Music USA with funding from the Mellon Foundation. Through this program, she will be mentored by pianist/vocalist/composer Patrice Rushen and jazz/soul harpist/composer Brandee Younger. In 2022, she had the honor of performing alongside Broadway giant Bryan Stokes Mitchell and Over The Rhine for the “JMR Greatest Hits” concert honoring conductor John Morris Russell with the legendary Cincinnati POPS Orchestra. Between 2016-2022, she has performed in 4 concerts with the orchestra alongside other incredible artists such as broadway and pop vocalist, Capthia Jenkins and classical soprano, Measha Brueggergosman. In 2017, “LadyMay” was awarded 2nd place in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocals Competition held at NJPAC in New Jersey. In the same year, she received the “Jazz Innovators Award” from Dallas, TX as part of Jazz Appreciation Month for her contributions to jazz education for young people in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Mayfield Brown was also chosen as one of the twelve semi-finalists to compete in the prestigious 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition (now known as the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Competition) that was held in Washington, D.C before a legendary panel of judges. In the summer of 2019, the city of Fort Worth awarded her with a “Legend In The Making” award at their annual “Dr. Marion J. Brooks Living Legends Awards” for her accomplishments in entertainment and education. In addition to several other awards, she is also a 2006 YoungArts winner for Jazz Voice. She has also appeared on Dallas/Ft. Worth’s news television show WFAA “Good Morning Texas” four times since 2011. She has opened for several well-known artists such as Kirk Whalum, Will Downing, Randy Brecker, Dave Valentin, Bobbi Humphrey, and The Main Ingredient.
“LadyMay” has recorded three albums, From All Directions (2009), A Portrait Of LadyMay (2012), and The Next Chapter (2018). The first album From All Directions was recorded while she was still attending the University of North Texas, where she received a B.M. in Jazz Studies. Jazz journalist Scott Yanow described her voice on her debut album From All Directions (2009) as “attractive” with “excellent elocution” and a “joyful spirit”. On her sophomore album A Portrait Of LadyMay (2012), Harvey Siders, former writer of JazzTimes and Downbeat magazines, describes her intonation as “flawless” and her scatting “as natural as breathing.” In addition to her vocal skills, she plays piano, trombone, composes, and teaches voice and music theory. In May of 2017, she was awarded 3rd place in the “Performance” category of the International Songwriting Competition for her original song “Forgive Me Someday” from her latest album The Next Chapter.
LadyMay’s appeal has also reached listeners abroad in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Nigeria, and Brazil. Her music has been featured on several international radio stations such as “Mi-Soul Radio”, “Solar Radio”, “Jazz FM”, “Tropical FM”, and “Premier Gospel Radio” in the UK, “RJM Radio” in France, and “Smooth 98.1” in Nigeria. In November 2012, her song “Real” from A Portrait Of LadyMay reached #1 on the “UK Soul Chart”. In July of 2013, she completed her first tour (LadyMay In The UK) to London where she was widely received on radio appearances, as well as at some of their top performance venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express in Soho, and the Flyover Portobello. UK based record store “Soul Brother Records” labeled “A Portrait Of LadyMay” as one of their “Best New Jazz Releases of 2013”.
In 2020, she was featured in a Dallas Morning News article about her experiences as artist and educator. In addition, she contributed an article to the ISJAC (International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers) about her experience as a black woman composer and performer, earning a master’s degree during a pandemic, and being the first African American person to receive an M.M. in Jazz Composition at the University of Texas at Arlington.
As an educator, Mayfield Brown has been an adjunct professor of commercial and jazz voice at the University of Texas Arlington, University Of North Texas in Denton, Texas, and Dallas College-Cedar Valley Campus in Lancaster, TX. She is currently on faculty at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado as the Assistant Professor of Contemporary Popular Music.
For more information on Tatiana “LadyMay” Mayfield, visit www.tatianamayfield.com.
In 2023, LadyMay was named as a grant awardee for the “Next Jazz Legacy” program created by NEA Jazz Master, Terri Lyne Carrington in partnership with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and New Music USA with funding from the Mellon Foundation. Through this program, she will be mentored by pianist/vocalist/composer Patrice Rushen and jazz/soul harpist/composer Brandee Younger. In 2022, she had the honor of performing alongside Broadway giant Bryan Stokes Mitchell and Over The Rhine for the “JMR Greatest Hits” concert honoring conductor John Morris Russell with the legendary Cincinnati POPS Orchestra. Between 2016-2022, she has performed in 4 concerts with the orchestra alongside other incredible artists such as broadway and pop vocalist, Capthia Jenkins and classical soprano, Measha Brueggergosman. In 2017, “LadyMay” was awarded 2nd place in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocals Competition held at NJPAC in New Jersey. In the same year, she received the “Jazz Innovators Award” from Dallas, TX as part of Jazz Appreciation Month for her contributions to jazz education for young people in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Mayfield Brown was also chosen as one of the twelve semi-finalists to compete in the prestigious 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition (now known as the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Competition) that was held in Washington, D.C before a legendary panel of judges. In the summer of 2019, the city of Fort Worth awarded her with a “Legend In The Making” award at their annual “Dr. Marion J. Brooks Living Legends Awards” for her accomplishments in entertainment and education. In addition to several other awards, she is also a 2006 YoungArts winner for Jazz Voice. She has also appeared on Dallas/Ft. Worth’s news television show WFAA “Good Morning Texas” four times since 2011. She has opened for several well-known artists such as Kirk Whalum, Will Downing, Randy Brecker, Dave Valentin, Bobbi Humphrey, and The Main Ingredient.
“LadyMay” has recorded three albums, From All Directions (2009), A Portrait Of LadyMay (2012), and The Next Chapter (2018). The first album From All Directions was recorded while she was still attending the University of North Texas, where she received a B.M. in Jazz Studies. Jazz journalist Scott Yanow described her voice on her debut album From All Directions (2009) as “attractive” with “excellent elocution” and a “joyful spirit”. On her sophomore album A Portrait Of LadyMay (2012), Harvey Siders, former writer of JazzTimes and Downbeat magazines, describes her intonation as “flawless” and her scatting “as natural as breathing.” In addition to her vocal skills, she plays piano, trombone, composes, and teaches voice and music theory. In May of 2017, she was awarded 3rd place in the “Performance” category of the International Songwriting Competition for her original song “Forgive Me Someday” from her latest album The Next Chapter.
LadyMay’s appeal has also reached listeners abroad in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Nigeria, and Brazil. Her music has been featured on several international radio stations such as “Mi-Soul Radio”, “Solar Radio”, “Jazz FM”, “Tropical FM”, and “Premier Gospel Radio” in the UK, “RJM Radio” in France, and “Smooth 98.1” in Nigeria. In November 2012, her song “Real” from A Portrait Of LadyMay reached #1 on the “UK Soul Chart”. In July of 2013, she completed her first tour (LadyMay In The UK) to London where she was widely received on radio appearances, as well as at some of their top performance venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express in Soho, and the Flyover Portobello. UK based record store “Soul Brother Records” labeled “A Portrait Of LadyMay” as one of their “Best New Jazz Releases of 2013”.
In 2020, she was featured in a Dallas Morning News article about her experiences as artist and educator. In addition, she contributed an article to the ISJAC (International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers) about her experience as a black woman composer and performer, earning a master’s degree during a pandemic, and being the first African American person to receive an M.M. in Jazz Composition at the University of Texas at Arlington.
As an educator, Mayfield Brown has been an adjunct professor of commercial and jazz voice at the University of Texas Arlington, University Of North Texas in Denton, Texas, and Dallas College-Cedar Valley Campus in Lancaster, TX. She is currently on faculty at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado as the Assistant Professor of Contemporary Popular Music.
For more information on Tatiana “LadyMay” Mayfield, visit www.tatianamayfield.com.
Degree(s)
- MM, Jazz Composition, University of Texas at Arlington, 2020
- BM, Jazz Studies, University of North Texas, 2010
