Kate Kortum is the winner of the 14th annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, also known as the SASSY Awards.
Kortum wowed the judges with her renditions of “Easy Come, Easy Go Blues,” “You’ve Been There,” and “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” during the awards ceremony on November 23 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Kortum is a Houston-born jazz vocalist with a warm, distinctive sound that seamlessly blends the blues, bebop and Broadway. Kortum released her debut album Good Woman (2023) to critical and streaming acclaim, surpassing 3.5 million streams for its imaginative reworkings of jazz standards from a female perspective. Her sophomore release Wild Woman (2025) follows, continuing her fresh, story-driven approach to bebop, blues and The Great American Songbook.
A graduate of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and the Juilliard School, Kortum has appeared at Mezzrow, SXSW, Birdland, Blue Note and Dizzy’s, collaborating with Peter Bernstein, Emmet Cohen, Bryan Carter, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Kortum currently resides in Harlem, New York City.
As winner of the top honour, Kortum receives a $5,000 cash prize. The second place prize at $1,500 was awarded to Emma Smith from London, England and the $500 third place prize went to Julia Moscardini from Argentina. Rounding out the Top Five was Philadelphia’s Diamond Princess Franklin and Candace Jones from Hollywood, Florida.
