Jazz Vespers: Arta Jēkabsone, Dabin Ryu, Hamish Smith
About this Event
Welcome to Jazz Vespers!
However you are connecting with Saint Peter's, we hope you will find a wide and warm embrace. Among the skyscrapers and hustle and bustle of Midtown, this is a place of respite and renewal. Whether in person in our Sanctuary, or streaming from home. Jazz Vespers is free of charge with donations welcome at the door or online.
About Jazz Vespers
Jazz Vespers, NYC's unique jazz prayer service, is held every Sunday at 5:00 P.M. Originating in 1965 with The Rev. John Garcia Gensel, he believed jazz to be "probably the best music for worship because it speaks to the existential situation of a human being. It is the personal expression of the person playing it." Saint Peter’s Church, the “First Church of Jazz,” remains a spiritual home to jazz musicians and lovers of jazz. Founded by Ruth and Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Joe Newman and Sheila Jordan, among many others, today the community represents the best of the New York City jazz scene.
This Week We Welcome...
Arta Jēkabsone (voice)
Dabin Ryu (piano)
Hamish Smith (bass)
About Arta Jēkabsone
Latvian-born vocalist, composer, and arranger Arta Jēkabsone infuses her jazz with Baltic soul and a strong sense of storytelling. Blending Latvian folk melodies with contemporary jazz expression, she creates music that feels both intimate and daring, delivered with warmth, clarity, and emotional depth.
Jēkabsone gained international acclaim by winning the Montreux Jazz Voice Competition and placing among the top three in several major international competitions. In 2021, she was awarded 3rd prize at the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.
Her work has earned further recognition, including a residency fellowship from The Jazz Gallery (2021/2022), the Latvian Music Award for New Artist of the Year (2022), and recognition in the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards (2024). She has also held residencies at The Church and Tofte Lake Center, was named a 2025 Fellow of the New York Foundation for the Arts and recently joined the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, where she is developing new works for big band.
Her debut album Light (2017) was followed by Dziesmu Kamoliņš (Garland of Songs) (2025), nominated for the Latvian Recording of the Year Award “Zelta Mikrofons” in the World and Folk Music category.
Jēkabsone’s performances invite audiences into a sonic space where heritage, innovation, and emotion converge -elevating jazz with a distinctly Baltic warmth and spirit.
About Dabin Ryu
Award-winning pianist and composer Dabin Ryu brings cerebral depth and emotional richness to every performance. Born in Seoul and based in NYC, she’s a Juilliard Artist Diploma candidate with prior degrees from Berklee and Manhattan School of Music.
Ryu’s music reflects a profound grasp of jazz history, filtered through a highly personal lens. Winner of the 2024 UNISA International Piano Competition and the 2025 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission, she has played iconic venues like Smalls and Dizzy’s, and collaborated with greats like Ralph Peterson. With her trio, she explores original compositions with nuance, improvisational elegance, and magnetic presence.
About Hamish Smith
Hamish Smith is an award-winning jazz bassist and composer from New Zealand, now based in New York City. With a reputation for rhythmic inventiveness, groove-driven feel, and lyrical sensibility, he has quickly established himself as one of the most in-demand bassists on the international jazz scene. Smith has worked with a remarkable roster of artists, including Paquito D’Rivera, Miguel Zenón, Jonathan Kreisberg, Yosvany Terry, Alex Sipiagin, Henry Hey, Zach Brock, Magos Herrera, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. NEA Jazz Master Todd Barkan has described him as “a modern marvel—one of the great young bassists in the world.”
After making a significant impact on the New Zealand jazz community, Smith was awarded a full tuition scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, prompting his move to New York in 2018. Following his first year of study, he was recruited by 15-time Grammy Award winner Paquito D’Rivera to join his touring quintet on acoustic bass at 21 years of age. Since then, Smith has performed widely with ensembles including D’Rivera’s quintet, the Manuel Valera Trio, the Jochen Rueckert Quartet, and Dayna Stephens’s Custom Deluxe. Smith is now the leader of his own ensemble and a founding member of the collaborative quartet Immigrantet, a group committed to exploring themes of migration, identity, and intercultural dialogue through contemporary jazz.
In addition to performing, Smith is an active educator and author. He has served as a guest clinician in the United States, Mexico, Germany, Belgium, and New Zealand. His e-book Notes on the Move offers practical guidance for aspiring jazz musicians navigating the transition to the U.S. scene. He is an endorsing artist for Aguilar Amplification.
About Saint Peter’s
If you are looking for a religious community, this may be a place for you! We are a Sanctuary and Reconciling in Christ Parish of the ELCA. We are a bi-lingual English-speaking and Spanish-speaking community. We are Brown, Black, White and more. We are persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Some of us hold citizenship, others of us are Dreamers, asylees or seeking documentation. A good way to begin this journey is to participate in our Sunday liturgies.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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