About
Jenna Emilie Jaffe was born in Philadelphia to a family of artists, musicians, writers, scientists, and other interesting people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. At the age of 12, she moved to Los Angeles County where she continued school studying drama and singing, and she began to compose music on the piano. At age 17 she moved to Santa Barbara to further her education exploring many areas of interest. She was accepted into UC Berkeley for the Rhetoric and Linguistics Program but decided to pursue music and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance (with Honors). She was very active with the university locally and regionally, performing jazz, gospel, opera, and middle eastern music. Though accepted into two Master of Music Programs in Third Stream Studies and Classical Voice at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Jenna remained in Santa Barbara to focus on starting a family, teaching voice and piano in her private music studio, and performing regularly.
Since that time, she has gratefully lived on stolen Cherokee land in Asheville, North Carolina for 18 years continuing to perform, teach and compose music, create art, channel energy healing, as well as teach English (ESL) at Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College. She is committed to healing Mother Earth and all its inhabitants and dismantling racism and all inequalities through creative disciplines. Her other passions include trans/gender vocal and life coaching, peer counseling (NCCPSS), phonetic and drama coaching, language teaching through music, and applying spiritual therapies in her trades. Jenna is a Reiki III certified practitioner. In addition to serving others, Jenna is dedicated to creating art within several disciplines including mixed media, photography, jewelry, dance, and more. You can see and hear Jenna performing in the Asheville area in different modalities and genres. Visit Jenna at her art studio upon appointment.