2024 Art

Maya Belardo

Wilmington

Maya Belardo Headshot
Maya Belardo

Established
Jazz: Performance

By: Gail Obenreder

“I fell in love with jazz music the moment I heard the song Nature Boy.”  

Maya Belardo began her professional career at the age of 17, booking a prime spot in Wilmington’s fabled Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. Though she was one of the youngest people ever to perform on the festival’s opening night, Belardo has actually been singing all her life. “My parents have videos of me singing with a broom as a guitar at 2 years old!”

She became serious about her craft when (at age 12) she heard the great Nat King Cole singing Nature Boy. His soulful rendition sent her to study the greats like Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, and Frank Sinatra, and “I have been in love ever since.”

Belardo’s parents moved to Wilmington when she was an infant, and so the Brooklyn-born singer considers herself a Wilmington native. She attended Cab Calloway School of the Arts, and after high school she went back to live in Brooklyn for three years. But Belardo returned to her Delaware roots in 2020 and is well-rooted here.

“Better Days,” 2023
Length of full work: 3 minutes 49 seconds
Instrument or voice part in the sample: Voice

Now known in her hometown as the Princess of Jazz, Belardo has played dozens of gigs and has sold out her performances at major venues like The Queen (in her hometown). Even with all the accolades, she’s still challenged to “not overthink my creativity, letting myself be free to express jazz in a way that feels authentic.”

Though she’s a vocalist and not an instrumentalist, Belardo can hear the sounds of every instrument when she creates a song. In her composition Free – an emotional comment on her search for artistic freedom and one of the tracks that garnered her the Division’s award – she clearly articulates her musical goals. In its lyrics “looking up to the sky / waving my fears goodbye,” you can feel the joy as Belardo’s voice finds its way to musical freedom.

“I love jazz for the way it makes me feel . . . I feel good listening to it.” Belardo wants to help others to the same positive experience – to “expose my generation and younger to jazz.” She found that many of her peers will hear a standard and think that it’s new “because they have never heard some of the most popular jazz tunes.” So Belardo partners with community organizations like the Wilmington Public Library, Wilmington’s Summer in the Parks program, and Jazz Philadelphia on projects that spread her love of this music and its healing properties.

“If It Wasn’t For You,” 2021
Length of full work: 4 minutes
Instrument or voice part in the sample: Voice

As well as caring for her pets – two cats “that I love so much” – Belardo is an avid traveler, and it’s her long-range plan to “travel the world singing jazz!” She’s hopeful that the Division’s Fellowship as an Established Artist – one of the youngest ever – is a step toward that dream, spreading the joy of “my beloved art form and how it makes you feel.”

Honored to receive this Fellowship, Belardo says she’s ready to record her first full project, and the Division’s award will help her create an EP of original music, adding to the legacy of “this beloved music with my own creations.” After years of singing standards and covers, Belardo is excited to be able to finally “share my own sound and creative expression . . . and pave the way for any future young vocalist in Delaware” who she hopes will be just as passionate about jazz.

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