Jonna Christensen & Azudi Onyejekwe

Teaches at Voice Academy NYC

Jonna Christensen

Jonna is a singer, songwriter, recording artist, dance teacher and a vocal coach from Finland. Jonna has been teaching private voice lessons since 2006 and worked as a dance teacher (commercial, hip hop, jazz, musical theater, latin) in various dance schools since 1996.

Jonna’s music career took of in 2002 when she was selected to be in the first Popstars band in Finland (a reality TV-format which was the inspiration for the Idols franchise). Jonna stayed in the band for only a short time before becoming the first singer and songwriter to combine American R&B sounds with Finnish lyrics and paving the way for a new era of pop music in Finland. Jonna released 3 solo albums with Sony Music, received multiple nominations at the Finnish Music Awards, booming radio play and top hits on the Finnish charts.

Jonna has been a TV host (Voice Out!, TV2), is a three-time Finnish “show dance” champion, has worked as a dancer in 2 different dance companies (StepUp dancers, Cat People show dance company) and she was a Finnish National semifinalist for the Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Puppets” in 2011.

Jonna has performed in musicals such as “Hair“, “Grease” and “Hello Dolly!” and she recorded the theme song for Disney’s Kim Possible in Finnish, among other voice over and studio work that she has done over the years.

Jonna got her Bachelor’s degree in pop and jazz vocal performance from Metropolia University in Helsinki, Finland and she also studied jazz vocals for 1 year at the Royal College of Music (Kungliga Musikhögskolan) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Jonna crowdfunded, produced and released an independent album “Sound Mind” in 2015 and after touring with the album in Europe, she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. After 2 years in California and touring the west coast, Jonna moved to NYC in 2017. For the past year, she has been performing her music regularly at different music venues in NYC and while continuing to write new music and pursuing her own music career, she is very excited to start teaching voice lessons at the Voice Academy NYC.

Jonna’s over 20 years of experience as a performer gives her a unique set of tools in coaching new talent not only in singing but also in the art of performing.(/ but in all aspects of performing).

Azudi Onyejekwe

Azudi is a Brooklyn based actor, singer-songwriter and educator. As the last born of six, to two incredible Nigerian born parents who immigrated to America in the 1970’s, infectious melodies, soulful basslines, African diasporic rhythms, and a transnational consciousness have permeated his existence for as long as he can remember, leading to a lifelong love affair with music.

Azudi is an honors graduate from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he double majored in Theatre and Africana Studies, but also trained extensively in voice and music theory. His voice teacher throughout his time at NYU was renowned vocal coach Dr. Pamelia Phillips. As an actor, Azudi has performed in dozens of productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and at multiple Tony award-winning regional theatres across the country. He is a member of the original Broadway casts of the critically acclaimed Broadway musicals “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” (featuring 4 time Grammy nominee and multi-platinum recording artist Josh Groban) and “Violet” (featuring Grammy nominee and 2 time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster).

As a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Azudi has also performed at venues all around the city including 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, Pete’s Candy Store, The Parkside Lounge, The Shrine in Harlem, and Carnegie Hall. He is currently at work on a debut EP of his original music, to be released in early 2019. He has been a member of the Faculty of Molloy College-CAP21 since the 2015-2016 school year and also teaches acting and vocal performance privately.

Fun Fact: Talented Azudi has performed 300+ in Off-Broadway and 300+ on Broadway! Impressive!