Miranda Verouli is a singer/songwriter based in Athens, Greece. She had her first piano and theory lessons when she was 8. After she got her degree in Physical Education from the University of Athens, she went on to study graphic design in Paris and then New York, at Parsons School of Design. After acquiring her BFA, she went to live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, working for designer Felipe Taborda.
Transformed by her stay in Brazil and her plunging into Brazilian culture as well as her interaction with Brazilian musicians, she moved back to Athens in the late ’90s and begun singing professionally with “Banda Som Brasil”, a band formed by Brazilian and Greek-Brazilian musicians.
In 2001, she joined the Athenaeum School of Music, where she studied jazz improvisation and harmony and got her Diploma in jazz singing.
She met many musicians, played with local bands in numerous events and venues in Athens and all over Greece, participated in recordings, mostly under the electronica genre, and started writing her own songs.
She wrote the lyrics for the Portuguese version of the Galani/Nikolakopoulou hit song “To Heirokrotima” by the title “Esse Olhar” (Sony 2005).
In 2003 she met Nikko Patrelakis and participated in his albums “Time” (2003 Smallhouse), and “Echo” (2007 Smallhouse / Klik), in which she sung “Arco-Ãris” which she wrote lyrics for.
Also in 2007, she recorded with Florian Mikuta for his debut album “Romzil” (2007 Ankh), singing in Portuguese and Romanian and writing lyrics.
During the years 2001-2003, she was the lead singer for bands “Démodé” (jazz, latin jazz, brazilian) and “Jazz Friends” (swing, be-bop, hard-bop).
In 2003 she formed her own band, “Desafinados” which reprises the Brazilian repertoire from a jazz-stand point of view, as all members of the band are jazz musicians who can throw a Carnival party if it’s called for! The band’s repertoire includes Brazilian music (covers and original songs) of various kinds, such as bossa nova, samba, MPB, baião, frevo, in original arrangements.
In 2009 she started performing with “Free Time Quartet”, a group formed by classical guitarist/arranger Spyros Michael. Its goal is the alternative approach of popular compositions though the use of the rich sound-colours of a chamber music ensemble. Together they just finished recording their first album, a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim and other Brazilian composers, with the participation of New York based bassist/arranger/composer Petros Klampanis.
In 2011 she performed at the show “Anything Goes”, a tribute to Cole Porter presented at Bacaro Jazz Club in Athens. Trumpet player/band-leader Manos Theodosakis produced riveting new arrangements for some of Cole Porter’s unique tunes, performed by his sextet of top-notch Greek Jazzmen (such as Antonis Andreou on the trombone), with Miranda on vocals.
Miranda is currently working on songs for her first solo album.
http://www.myspace.com/mirandaverouli