Thana Alexa

Surprising is the word that perhaps best describes Grammy® nominated vocalist and composer, Thana Alexa, an extraordinarily creative force in music. Her two time Grammy® nominated album ONA (self-release, March 2020), was inspired by the cross generational and cross-cultural stories of the Croatian women in her family and evolved into an exploration of the experiences of contemporary women everywhere. Her desire to create more female-focused projects has only grown from there, including her trio’s 2022 self-titled album SONICA, an album fully engineered, mixed and produced by Alexa, released via Outside In Music together with Grammy nominated artist, Nicole Zuraitis and first-call bassist, Julia Adamy.

One of Alexa’s most important and ongoing collaborations has been with her husband, four-time Grammy® winner Antonio Sanchez. Together they have recorded over 6 albums together with each other’s respective groups in addition to projects by other artists. After years of collaboration, they have teamed up to compose an original score for Existencia, a piece in which the drums, voice and physical movement are highlighted as the three most primal forms of human expression and will be used to tell a powerful story of destruction, devastation, community rebuilding and human resilience.

During the 2020 Coronavirus lockdown, Alexa made headlines as a co-founder of what Rolling Stone called the first “virtual jazz festival” and fundraising initiative of the pandemic, Live From Our Living Rooms, which contracted over 120 artists, raised over $140,000, and helped facilitate grants to over 100 US based musicians in need. Post pandemic, Alexa co-founded and is the artistic director of the Ponta Lopud Jazz Festival in Croatia, which seeks to connect the wealth of musicianship from the region with some of the most well-known jazz artists from the US and around the world.