Whitney James Jazz Singer

Show Notes

Recorded 01/22/2026 14 MIN 55 SEC

Released 01/28/2026

Episode 5 Whitney James Jazz Singer

This is Shaping Our Story where I talk with exemplary leaders about their success to inspire others to thrive.

Today, our guest, Whitney James, is a jazz vocalist celebrated for soulful storytelling, polished musicianship, and deeply expressive performances that connect instantly with audiences. She’s also a full professor teaching commercial music at Dallas College in Texas, and she’s a DJ, jewelry designer, a shoe lover, and proud dog mom

Information

Louise Krikorian’s outline of questions comes from her years of researching the psychology of learning, motivating students, and researching Dr. Angela Duckworth’s work on Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016). For more information on Dr. Angela Duckworth, you can visit https://angeladuckworth.com/.

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http://www.whitneyjames.com/

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https://www.facebook.com/WhitneyJamesSings/

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Whitney James (@whitneyjamesjazz)

https://www.instagram.com/whitneyjamesjazz/?hl=en

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Years Active: 2025

Episodes: 5

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Transcript

I’m Louise Krikorian and this is Shaping Our Story where we talk to exemplary leaders about their success to inspire others to thrive.

Today, our guest, Whitney James, is a jazz vocalist celebrated for soulful storytelling, polished musicianship, and deeply expressive performances that connect instantly with audiences. She’s also a full professor teaching commercial music at Dallas College in Texas, and she’s a DJ, jewelry designer, a shoe lover, and proud dog mom

Hello and welcome, Whitney James. Hi Louise. Nice to see you. Nice to see you too. I'm used to seeing you as my vocal coach. I love doing that too. I love seeing your piano in the background. I've got my piano in the background. We're all ready. We should just, we should just sing. I'm ready. Let's go. Yeah. But today we're really focused on the power of passion and perseverance and the consistency that you've had and the difference between, um, your growing up and my growing up, and the support that you've got at such an early age.

So you were five years old in the San Francisco Bay area and your mom was taking you to rehearsals and you were dancing and then you tried out for Dorothy and the children's production of The Wiz, you were nine years old. Yes. That I, um. Music was always in our home. My parents had a huge record collection and very, my dad had a very fancy stereo and we would always watch movie musicals and there was always a lot of singing and dancing and that was something I was doing from a very early age.

So I think my mom thought, oh my gosh, we better channel this energy somewhere. So I started dance lessons. Um, when I was five and every, my dad was a big golfer and on the weekends he would golf all weekend long and I wasn't allowed to touch the records or the stereo system. And when he would leave on Saturday morning after breakfast, I would ask to be, have my mom put on a different record for me. 

And I would sit there with those big padded headphones and I would listen to it over and over until I memorized all the songs, the lyrics, the runs, the everything the singers were doing. And so that was like Barbara Streisand, Peaches and Herb, the Bee Gees, Chicago. I mean, it was, uh, Aretha Franklin.

It was such a wide variety of music and singers and I really fell in love with singing. I didn't know if I was any good. I'm sure my mom listening to me a capella, ah, you know, my poor sisters like, ugh. Um, so that was sort of what I did all day long and we would make up dances and put on shows. And so I started off as a dancer and then auditioned for musical theater, just hoping I would get in the chorus to dance. And I ended up getting the lead of Dorothy because they thought I was a good singer. 

And I was like, oh, oh, I am. I always loved it, but I didn't know if I had any ability. And then I started taking singing lessons. So that really opened the door.

And for a very long time I thought I would go into musical theater. I loved that. But then I fell in love with jazz and that sort of changed my trajectory. So your Instagram uh, profile says that you're a college professor, you're a musician, you're a DJ, you're a jewelry designer, you're a shoe lover, and a proud dog mom.

Yeah. So if we look at all of those, what is your passion or greatest interest? I mean, certainly the, the musician part is, is my greatest passion and love, and it's really being a musician. Um. It's really something you have to be devoted to. And so that is, um, so that I would say is the primary, how I would primarily describe myself.

I do love shoes. I have a shoe addiction and I do love jewelry. I love sparkly things. Um, so, uh, and pretty things. I'm very visual and, um, so. Those are just, um, little facets of my personality, but musician would probably be the def, the number one defining thing. And you started training at an early age, would you say that your mentors and the feedback that you got had a very strong influence on you?

Absolutely. My first voice teacher was an opera singer named Eilana Lappalainen. Um, and this was in, I know she's Finnish. She was very glamorous. She was Miss Santa Clara County. Um, and, uh, she. I remember auditioning for her and I sang a song from the Wiz, uh, Home. And um, I remember the feedback I received after that and she said, you have a very nice voice, but you sound almost like you're singing country.

When I think of home, I think of, oh my, so that was her, it like imitation of me, but she was incredibly. Um, encouraging. I was her only student that didn't wanna sing classical music and she really let me explore and encouraged me in many ways. I started doing vocal competitions and then auditioning for more and more things.

I started working at the fairgrounds for their holiday shows and the summer, uh, Santa Clara County fair. And, um, I think she got me in pageants, which I was not meant to do. But anyhow, she really. Um, encouraged me and she was very important to my development as a singer. And when I started singing with her, I had one octave range that was very low for a young female person and she was like, oh no, there's so much more there.

And she really built my vocal range. I can attribute that to her for sure. That's wonderful. Well, you had a very strong foundation with your parents supporting you and having a wonderful mentor and teacher and feedback early on. What did you learn from your biggest professional failure? Hmm. I think those moments that we would maybe summarize as failure can really be some of our greatest lessons and redirections. Um, I think if I look at my musical life, certainly my. Um, I, I would say kind of giving up on myself, uh, in an academic way early on, um, and not being as dedicated and hungry as I should have been.

I sort of, um, felt that sense of failure deeply in things like music theory or piano, which I had struggled with in my like early twenties in my undergrad. Um, I had studied piano as a child but gave it up because I didn't enjoy it. But, um, which was also something I regret. And my mom always says, oh, you should have never done that.

I told you not to. But, um, I think giving up on myself and maybe not pushing myself to work as hard, that would be something that I would love to go back and redo if I had a time machine. Um, but I think those moments, we learn so much from them. Mm-hmm. So, um, you know, I am who I am because of all of the experiences, good or bad that I've had.

Right. And so I guess you, you really can't change it, but you can, uh, gain wisdom and insight, so, mm-hmm. Well, it sounds like not everything comes easily to you, but you don't give up and you keep going. But what keeps you inspired? The pursuit of, um, knowledge of gaining more skill of, um, growth, uh, personally, certainly.

Um. I'm also inspired by, um, trying to put something good and beautiful out into the world and appreciating that in my peers or, um, mentors or people that I look up to. Um, I'm always inspired by, um, goodness, kindness, um, but, uh, yeah, certainly being able to, um, put something beautiful that may take someone out of a moment, they're having like a terrible day.

And if they could, you know, hear something that you've recorded and it makes them pause and makes them forget about things for a moment. I think that's, that's, um, definitely worthwhile. So I don't know if that fully answers your question. I could probably watch minutes. Yeah, I think that it does for many minutes.

I wish. I wish we could just have you sing right now, but I think, well, I'm definitely going to include a link to your acclaimed album, the Nature of Love, but that's also on, it's streaming on iTunes and Spotify, but I'll put some information in the, in the show notes. Speaking of that, what do you hope to do next?

So, um, that album came out in 20, or I guess I recorded it in 2009. It came out in 2010, and it was long overdue, and I feel like it is now long overdue for me to put something new out. So that's something that I'd love to accomplish this year. Um, and, uh, you know, in, I'm. Performing, uh, and then I'm teaching.

And so, um, you know, I'm always trying to learn and grow and be better, be a better, better educator, be a better teacher, um, inspire my students and encourage them. I think, uh, you know, Eilana Lappalainen was a wonderful, um, influence on me. But then Jay Clayton was my mentor for many years, and she had this uncanny ability to help you discover your own voice and encourage you to do that and to pursue that.

And so I hope that I am being that for my students too. And so what is your advice for someone who's starting their own journey? Stay hungry for knowledge, stay hungry to keep improving. Um, it can be hard to sit in a practice room by yourself and slog through things that you're not naturally good at.

And I certainly struggled with that, but it is such a gift to your future self if you can do that. I say practicing is the gift you give yourself. That will show up two weeks from now. Yeah. Um, so, uh, yeah, really keep, stay hungry for knowledge and, um, stay on that quest to become better in every way.

That's, that's really what I try to impart into my students. And what do you do consistently? Keep listening. Keep exploring. I think as, um, a vocalist, uh, I love to explore the sounds that I can make, um, keep trying new things. Um, and uh, you know, try, I think the older we get, the more easy it is to be ourselves.

Um, I feel like we just get more distilled. It's like a sauce on the, um, in a pan on the stove. And you know, the more life seasons us, the less what's not truly us evaporates and, uh, we get more tasty and distilled and, and robust. And so, um, that's sort of. Uh, I think what I, what I'm trying to do as an artist mm-hmm. As a musician, as a person. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. 

So when our listeners wanna find out more about you, where can they go? My website, whitney james.com. W-H-I-T-N-E-Y-J-A-M-E s.com. That is the, a great place to, to go and, and everything you'll need will be there. Well, I encourage everyone to go because you're, we haven't even heard your voice yet, so everyone needs to hear your voice singing, just spine tingling. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. You inspire me. Thank you so much for joining us at Shaping Our Story. Thanks to our guest Whitney James who shared her ability to continue even when things didn’t come easily as proof that she combines her passion with perseverance.

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