When Caity Gyorgy, MMus’22, accepted a Juno Award earlier this year, she barely had time to celebrate.
Gyorgy has been busy formatting sheet music for her biggest project yet: an orchestral album of original songs.
“It’s been hard to focus on [winning the Juno],” she offers with a shy laugh. “Even when I was in Vancouver [for the ceremony], I was doing formatting for the parts for this recording session.”
That whirlwind pace has become a hallmark of Gyorgy’s career. In just a few short years, the Calgary-born vocalist, composer, and lyricist has become one of Canada’s most promising jazz artists.
Gyorgy first found herself drawn to jazz as a teenager. A member of her high school’s jazz choir, she began performing publicly, landing her first paid gig at the Calgary Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions.
“I think I got like $150 to sing a few songs,” she recalls. “And I realized this was actually something I could do.’”
Thus encouraged, Gyorgy pursued music seriously, first attending Humber College in Toronto for her undergraduate studies. There, she developed the technical foundation and creative voice that would set her apart, releasing her first recordings while still a student.
When it came time to continue her education, she looked further east, enrolling in McGill’s Master of Music in Jazz Performance program in 2020.
Despite the pandemic-time challenges of online studies, Gyorgy found her move to Montreal transformative.
“Moving to Montreal was a really good decision,” she says. “Even though things were remote, I had one private lesson in person with [assistant professor of jazz voice] Ranee Lee every week.
“Getting to see her was kind of a saving grace. She was like a godsend during that time.”
Those one-on-one sessions with Lee, a Juno Award-winner herself, provided more than instruction. They offered a vital human connection during months of isolation.
At McGill, Gyorgy honed her musicianship alongside instrumentalists in classes and ensembles and deepened her understanding of composition and improvisation while immersing herself in the city’s jazz community.
“The best part about going to McGill was moving to Montreal and meeting new people, making connections,” she says. “It really opened a lot of doors.”
“I try to find interesting words to describe things. Finding the wit, and sort of a cleverness within the lyrics, is what I try to do.”
Jazz singer/composer Caity Gyorgy
Even as she navigated online learning, Gyorgy’s career outside the classroom was flourishing. She signed with New York label La Reserve and began building an international audience.
The American jazz publication DownBeat described her as a “skilled songwriter whose originals sound as if they are from the 1950s with more modern lyrics.” Her bebop-infused cover of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” a collaboration with the musical collective Postmodern Jukebox, attracted more than 1.2 million views on YouTube.
Growing recognition led to her first Juno Award in 2022, winning Vocal Jazz Album of the Year for her debut LP Now Pronouncing: Caity Gyorgy. With a second consecutive Juno win in 2023 for her follow-up album Featuring, she matched a rare achievement last seen by jazz icon Diana Krall, who won back-to-back Junos in the early 2000s.
As a result of her most recent Juno Award for Hello! How Are You?, Gyorgy has now won the prize a remarkable three times in the last four years.
“I’m absolutely honoured. But with everything going on, between the projects, the touring, sometimes it’s hard to even take it all in,” she admits.
Her latest LP, Asking for Trouble, was released in late March and reunites Gyorgy with pianist, composer, and fellow Calgarian Mark Limacher. The pair first collaborated on You’re Alike, You Two, released in 2023.
Gyorgy’s music showcases not only her technique but also her ear for storytelling through lyrics, which she credits to a lifelong love of language.
“I try to find interesting words to describe things,” she explains. “Finding the wit, and sort of a cleverness within the lyrics, is what I try to do.”
That attention to detail underscores her most ambitious undertaking yet: a full orchestral album of original compositions, recorded with a 37-piece ensemble.
Balancing vocal performance, artistic direction, and production logistics, Gyorgy approached the project with the same steady focus that has defined her career. She recorded her vocals live with the rhythm section, eschewing overdubs to capture a natural, immersive sound.
The luminous, jaunty playfulness of Gyorgy’s easygoing tone and deft delivery sound almost effortless. But years of technical work – including intensive and often grueling training for jaw placement and breath control – provide backbone to her confidence, allowing her to focus fully on conveying the emotional heart of a song.
“I have complete trust in my voice,” she says.
With the orchestral project nearly completed, new horizons are in sight for Gyorgy as she envisions the next stage of her journey.
“What I really, really want to start doing is touring and playing with orchestras around the world,” she says.
Given the pace with which she has taken each step so far, Gyorgy may not always have time to stop to smell the roses. But she’s planting the seeds for what comes next.
“I know what I need to do. It’s just hard to find the time to be able to do it. But that’s just life,” she says.
Caity Gyorgy will be performing in Montreal on June 26 as part of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.
