Janice Borla’s recordings and performances have earned her consistently high praise for her beautiful sound, superb technique, adventurous repertoire and imaginative vocal improvisations. Often cited for her risk-taking approach, her eclectic repertoire favors instrumental jazz tunes by modern and contemporary jazz composers.  In 2021 she ranked sixth in the Jazz Vocalist category of the DownBeat Readers Poll.   With each successive recording she drills deeper into the musical approach that distinguishes her – to wide critical praise.  Promises to Burn and From Every Angle both received “4 stars” in DownBeat Magazine and ranking as one of its “Best Albums of the Year.” Agents of Change was named “The #1 Jazz CD of the Year” by WBEZ-FM Chicago Public Radio and praised by Jazz Times as “Genius. Pure genius.” Notable performances include multiple appearances at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Jazz Showcase (Chicago), Birdland and the Iridium (NYC).   A recognized pioneer in vocal jazz education, she founded the Janice Borla Vocal Jazz Camp and “Hot Jazz – 6 Cool Nites” Concert Series which ran for 26 years. Former Associate Adjunct Professor of Music at North Central College (1996-2020), Borla also served on the jazz faculties at Benedictine University, Northeastern Illinois University and College of DuPage. As a guest artist and clinician she has performed at high schools, colleges and festivals in the U.S, Canada, Europe and Japan. Since 2007 she has been a judge for the DownBeat Student Music Awards.

With her extensive experience as a performer and jazz educator, Janice Borla offers a variety of options, either as a featured guest artist or with her jazz group.   The Janice Borla Group is a versatile contemporary jazz combo, featuring 4-6 musicians. Personnel varies depending on availability. Instrumentation can be tailored to the specific needs and budget of the presenter, ranging from a quartet (voice and rhythm section) to quintet or sextet (adding trumpet and/or saxophone). Originally based in Chicago, since moving to Emporia in 2022 her preferred personnel are bassist Mark Foley, guitarist Will Flynn, drummer Steve Hatfield and trumpeter Mike Steinel.  Borla is also available for guest solo appearances with high school, college and community ensembles, both instrumental and vocal. She offers arrangements that feature her with jazz band and vocal jazz ensemble.  

Janice Borla Group concert: $3,600 – $5,200 for 4-6 musicians Janice Borla guest soloist: $1,000 Travel and lodging not included; negotiable based on travel distance.

Janice Borla is a masterful jazz clinician, offering workshops and master classes, typically in conjunction with concert performances. Her 35-year experience as a vocal jazz educator enables her to work with individual students and ensembles of various levels. She offers an extensive collection of vocal jazz arrangements of varying levels of difficulty, in settings ranging from SAB and SSA to SATB and SSATB, available for use for high school and college concerts and festivals. All are designed to provide young improvisers an opportunity to gain experience and confidence honing their improvisatory skills. The Janice Borla Vocal Jazz Camp, (1989-2014) designed specifically for solo vocalists in age from high school through adult, focused on assessing and then expanding and enhancing students’ vocal aptitudes as individual performers, making her a superb clinician for vocal soloists. Each of the members of her group is also a highly regarded jazz educator, and can be engaged for individual clinics, workshops and master classes as well as interactive rhythm section workshops.

Educational component (clinic/master class/workshop) the day of the concert performance: $300 per musician. Fees negotiable for additional educational options.

Borla and her husband, the late drummer Jack Mouse, launched Flashpoint Creative Arts, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the understanding and practice of improvisation beyond jazz as an essential life skill.  They have presented vocal improvisation workshops for a wide array of groups, from civic organizations to at-risk youth with financial and resource limitations to persons with special needs. It is Borla’s intention to continue Flashpoint’s improvisation workshops following her husband’s death in 2024 with the assistance of drummer Kevin Rabas and guitarist Riley Day.  The workshops are offered free of charge, often in conjunction with a scheduled performance/concert appearance. Using vocal improvisation in an informal workshop setting, participants learn by “call and response” how to improvise regardless of age or musical experience, first as a group and then individually. The emphasis is not on “singing” as such, but on using sound and rhythm to create musical conversation.   In 2019, Mouse and Borla presented a series of seven consecutive vocal improvisation workshops at the Emporia Granada Theatre for special education students from the Emporia Public Schools and adult patrons from Hetlinger Developmental Services and Stepping Stones Unlimited.   Prior to that they launched an ongoing “Improvisation as Therapy” initiative for youth with autism and other developmental disabilities in partnership with the Little Friends Center for Autism during the time the couple lived in Naperville, Illinois. In 2019 they were made Paul Harris Fellows by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International in recognition of their work with young people with autism spectrum disorder.