CLAUDIA MONTES

Claudia Montes is a singer, dancer, and songwriter whose music traces the pathways between her roots and the cultural crossroads of New York. Born in Los Angeles and raised in NYC, she creates a distinctive sound that blends boleros, rancheras, and canto cardenche with the emotional storytelling of American soul and folk traditions, forging a deeply personal synthesis that resonates across borders and histories.

Niece of Jamaican reggae icon Tyrone "Garth" Evans of The Paragons, Claudia has toured and recorded throughout the US and Mexico as lead singer with Afro-Mexican band Jarana Beat and Juntas Chicas. Her musical journey has led to collaborations with Latin Grammy Award-winning, Grammy-nominated all-female mariachi band Flor de Toloache, Arturo O'Farril's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Dan Zanes, and Sonia de los Santos, gracing stages such as Carnegie Hall, the Kaufman Music Center, the Kennedy Center, Symphony Space, Joe's Pub, SXSW, El Museo del Barrio, the Cloisters, and the Shanghai Expo.

Claudia headlined the closing of the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum following a successful tour in Andalucía, Spain. In 2021, she launched her debut single "Fall in Time" featuring Grammy winner John Benitez and Latin Grammy winner Felipe Fournier. She was also co-founder, outreach director, dancer, and teacher with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company.

Over the years, Claudia has studied voice with Don Lawrence, Gema Corredera, and Claude Stein, flamenco with Sonia Olla and Torombo Suarez, and son jarocho with Rubí Oseguera, Los Vega, and Andrés Flores.

Her intimate vocal storytelling draws from global sounds and invokes the essences of Chavela, Gal, Nina, and Buckley, bridging cultural lineages through bilingual narratives that create an emotional journey inward.

Claudia is currently developing new solo work with cross-genre musicians, bringing together the multitudes that have shaped her artistic voice into a cohesive sound that honors tradition while forging new sonic territory.