Patrice Jégou-Oyelese

Patrice Jégou-Oyelese is a retired Canadian figure skater who took up singing at the suggestion of a castmate while skating in an ice show on tour in Mexico. She made her professional singing debut as an undergraduate student as a soloist in Mass by Leonard Bernstein, under the baton of Maestro Hans Graf with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Jégou-Oyelese holds a D.M.A. in classical vocal performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, an M.M. from Belmont University, and a B.M. from the University of Calgary. She also completed the Programme D’Apprentissage de Français Langue Seconde at Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Since 2015, Jégou-Oyelese has been studying contemporary commercial vocal technique in private lessons with acclaimed vocal coach Justin Stoney, and recently completed the 50-hour Voice Teacher Training & Certification course taught by Stoney and his team. On her record label, Prairie Star Records, Jégou-Oyelese has released three albums of popular music: Speak Low (2014), If It Ain't Love (2019), and There's a Light (2021). Her classical recording experience includes an album of Latin American and Russian art songs with Galician bagpipe player and pianist Cristina Pato. In 2019 and 2020, Jégou-Oyelese won the Independent Music Award for Best A Cappella Song for the tracks “Lover Come Back to Me” featuring Mark Kibble and Alvin Chea of TAKE 6 and “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” featuring TAKE 6. She has performed at the Berks Jazz Festival with Kirk Whalum and at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City with TAKE 6.