German jazz composer, musician and singer Alma Naidu was born in 1995 and is based in Munich. The daughter of a conductor and an opera singer, she learned to play the piano from the age of five, followed by violin, guitar and singing, both classical and musical theatre. After studying from 2016 at Munich's Hochschule für Musik und Theater, then at London's Royal Academy with Norman Winstone, Alma Naidu performs on stage in musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar and as a jazz interpreter, appearing with ensembles such as the Landesjugendjazzorchester Bayern or drummer Wolfgang Haffner on his album Kind of Tango (ACT, 2020). The singer has received several awards, including the Audience Prize at the Gasteig Competition (2018), first prize at the Jugend Jazzst (2018), the Kurt Maas Jazz Award (2021) and the BMW Welt Young Artist Jazz Award (2021). In 2022, Leopard Records released his debut album Alma, featuring contributions from Haffner, Dominic Miller (guitar), Simon Oslender (keyboards), Nils Landgren (trombone) and Claus Fischer (bass). With her own quartet of musicians, she then recorded the album Redefine (2025), featuring guests such as, in addition to Landgren, Jakob Bänsch (trumpet), Mark Lettieri (guitar), Frank Chastenier (piano), Friedrich Paravicini (keyboards), Raphaela Gromes (cello) and Lisa Wulff (bass).
