Imani Rousselle is a Texas-born vocalist with a love for interpreting and delivering the message of lyric. Whether covering jazz standards or contemporary compositions, her voice invites you to follow along as she fills the spaces between the silence with carefully crafted sound. Imani’s musical journey started at Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas, Tx in the lambs ministry choir. As soon as children were able to speak, they were able to join the choir and that’s exactly what happened with Imani. As she moved through the various choirs, church leaders heard something powerful in her voice and so she eventually joined the praise team that led the choir and congregation in worship. During this time, Imani also sang in her school's choir as well as the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas and fell fully in love with singing. She eventually auditioned at the prestigious Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and became a leader in the chorus there. It was at Booker T. that Kent Ellingson invited Imani to sing with the award winning jazz ensemble and thus began her academic journey in more contemporary styles of singing. After graduating, Imani left Texas to attend Columbia College Chicago where she obtained her Bachelor's Degree in Voice as well as a double minor in environmental science and management. While in Chicago she met Jackson Shepard, a fellow CCC student, and after recording on a few songs of his she joined his then one man band, Human Bloom. Human Bloom has since released singles that have gained lots of traction in the experimental/pop-fusion listening spheres, and are set to be releasing more music later in 2021. Imani performed extensively with Human Bloom in Chicago as well as a feature vocalist with other groups including Jalen Baker’s Tano, and Stefon Harris’ Blackout on stages such as the legendary Jazz Showcase, The Green Mill, and others. Imani currently makes her home in New York City, having graduated the Manhattan School of Music with a master’s degree in Jazz Voice in the spring of 2021. At MSM she was under the amazing tutelage of Jean Baylor, Buster Williams, Marc Carey, Jo Lawry, Theo Bleckman, Ingrid Jenson, and Damien Sneed. The MSM community provided Imani with the tools and confidence she needed to compose more than any other period in her life and subsequently she is working toward the completion of several music and interdisciplinary projects. Since moving to New York just a few months before the global shutdown, Imani has been able to sing on stages such as the world famous Dizzy's Jazz Club, Smalls Jazz Club, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Clements Place, The Schomburg Center in Harlem, The Joyce Theater and more. She has performed alongside great musicians including Stefon Harris, Casey Benjamin, Marc Carey, Jaleel Shaw, Cory Henry, Ben Williams, Roger Boykin, Jon Thomas, Jillian Grace, Gabby Garo, Domo Branch, Abdulrahman Amer, and is excited to continue performing in a world with renewed fervor for connection and creation.