Worldwide Fay Claassen is wellknown as one of the most lyrical improvising vocalists. She has always put an individual stamp on her 20-year professional career.
On her own albums she performed with most famous guest stars. Fay received important awards and recorded with international orchestras.
Her Double album ‘Two Portraits of Chet Baker’ brought her worldwide euphoric reviews, as well as the first ‘Chet Baker Award’, a first place in the ‘All About Jazz’-critics poll in New York, the ‘Choc’ from the French Jazz Magazine ‘Jazzman’ and ‘The Golden Album Award’ in The Netherlands.
Fay Claassen has up to now published seven CDs under her own name. Her last album she recorded was ‘SING!’ with the WDR Big Band, arranged by Michael Abene. As a guest soloist, she can be heard on fifteen additional CDs. Her album ‘Red, Hot and Blue’ got her placed on the ‘Grammy pre-nomination list’ for the ‘Best Jazz Vocal Album’. For ‘The Shakespeare Album’, she received the most renowned music prize of the Netherlands, the ‘Edison Award’.
On her own albums she worked with renowned musicians as Barry Harris, Toots Thielemans, Mike Stern, Kenny Werner.
She was soloist on albums with Bob Brookmeyer’s ‘New Art Orchestra’, the ‘WDR Big Band’, ‘The WDR Rundfunk Orchestra’ the ‘Danish Radio Big Band’ under the direction of Jim McNeely and ‘The Millennium Jazz Orchestra’.
She performed with ‘The Metropole Orchestra’ directed by Vince Mendoza and Jim McNeely.
She gave concerts with ‘The Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw’, In concerts she cooperate with Rita Reys, Paquito D’ Riviera, James Carter, David Linx and Maria Pia DeVito.?
She performed in the USA, eight times at the North Sea Jazz Festival and gave concerts at many international jazz festivals and venues in Europe and Asia.