Abbi Berry is an award-winning vocalist, instrumentalist, songwriter, and teacher based in Los Angeles, California. A thoughtful artist with a meticulous eye for detail, she has been recording, performing, and teaching professionally for the past six years. As a studio singer, she worked from 2020-2021 at JAM Creative Productions in Dallas, one of the last great Radio ID/Jingle houses, and has since recorded both lead and background vocals for a wide variety of demos, promo reels, and artist projects, working at studios including Capitol Records, East West Studios, and Warner Brothers and at her home recording setup. As a performing artist, she has kept a busy schedule playing shows of her original music, cover shows, and as a background singer and guitarist at venues such as the Hotel Cafe, the Mint, and the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center. She has also held residencies at many high-profile hotels in the LA area, including the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage and Laguna Niguel, and the Fairmont Century Plaza, as a guitarist and vocalist. She has been a member of Tonality, a Grammy-winning choral ensemble, since 2023. In 2024, she became the director of the Los Angeles chapter of Chick Singer Night, producing events and performances for the award-winning organization.
Abbi is also a prolific songwriter and producer, and self-released a trio of original EPs titled Feel Better, Pts I, II, and III in 2023 and 2024. Her songs feature thoughtful lyrics, lush harmonies, and intricate guitar parts, sometimes paying homage to her idol Joni Mitchell and sometimes evoking the 2000s-era pop she grew up with. The fifteen songs are self-written and almost entirely self-recorded, self-performed, and self-produced, showcasing Abbi’s ear for arranging and production. She continues to write, with another original project likely to surface in the next few years.
Born and raised by two musician parents, Abbi Berry started her musical training at age four in the form of piano lessons, which she continued until high school. She was also a member of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (2008-2016) with which she toured to Washington D.C., South Africa, Canada, England, and Germany and performed with Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and John Williams, among others; in venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
Abbi attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts from 2012-2016. As student director and member of LACHSA’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble, she won both ensemble and soloist awards in the Next Generation Jazz Festival in Monterey, California, performed at the famed Monterey Jazz Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.
Abbi was also a member of the 2016 Grammy Choir as part of the Grammy Camp Jazz Session. She has received honors from the national YoungArts Foundation, including being named a Finalist in Jazz Voice in 2017, and three Honorable Mentions in Jazz and Popular Voice in previous years. In 2016, she was the featured vocalist with the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, which toured to Japan and performed on the main stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Abbi attended UCLA from 2016-2017 as a Linguistics major, but continued her vocal jazz studies there under the direction of Michele Weir and Kenny Burrell.
Abbi attended the University of North Texas, earning her Bachelor’s of Music in May 2020 in Jazz Studies with a vocal concentration. At UNT, she studied voice and vocal pedagogy with Rosana Eckert and arranging/score study with Jennifer Barnes. Abbi was also a member of UNT’s esteemed One O’Clock Lab Band, under the direction of Alan Baylock, and the top vocal jazz ensemble, the UNT Jazz Singers, under the direction of Jennifer Barnes. Highlights from her time in those groups include: two Downbeat Student Music Awards, Finalist in the Jack Rudin Jazz Championship, performances at the Jazz Education Network Conference, and tours to Chicago, New Orleans, and New York City. Abbi graduated summa cum laude.