Tracey Yarad

BIO

Award-winning Australian-born, New York-based singer, songwriter, pianist and theatre-maker Tracey Yarad is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends jazz sensibility, original music and fearless storytelling. Her remarkable career spans continents and reinventions—from touring Australia with her original music and achieving a Top 40 single in the 1990s, to a seven-year residency performing in five-star hotels across Japan, and founding and directing a music school for eighteen years in Australia's Blue Mountains before ultimately relocating to New York City.

Possessing a deeply expressive voice and a gift for crafting emotionally resonant songs, Yarad has established herself within New York's jazz and singer-songwriter community, performing at venues including Birdland, the 55 Bar, Soapbox Gallery and The Bitter End. Her collaborators include Grammy-nominated Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña, Grammy-winning pianist Jon Cowherd and acclaimed saxophonist Dave Binney. Her duo project with pianist Jim Ridl, Lost in Translation—a poignant blend of story and song inspired by her years in Japan—drew praise from award-winning New Yorker journalist Steve Futterman, who observed that “if demanding experience leads to hard-won wisdom, Yarad and Ridl will have much to impart.”

Yarad's critically acclaimed, award-winning one-woman musical memoir, All These Pretty Things, represents a powerful evolution of her artistic voice. Written and performed by Yarad and directed by David Deblinger, the production transforms the devastating collapse of her 23-year marriage into an extraordinary theatrical journey of love, loss, resilience and reinvention, combining original songs, captivating musicianship, razor-sharp humour and deeply personal storytelling.

Following its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it enjoyed two consecutive seasons, All These Pretty Things has toured internationally, including performances across the UK and London, and two successful seasons at Australia's Adelaide Fringe. In 2026, the production received two Adelaide Fringe honours, including the prestigious Best Music Production Award and a weekly Best Music Production award. The show has also enjoyed successful New York engagements at 59E59 Theaters and Theatre Row, most recently appearing at the 2026 Australian Theatre Festival NYC, where its final performance sold out. With more than 90 international performances, the production continues to attract critical acclaim. BroadwayWorld described it as “storytelling and songwriting at its very best: funny, raw, unexpected, and moving,” while NoHo Arts District hailed it as “unashamedly bawdy and hilarious and absolutely bloody brilliant!”

Alongside her performance career, Yarad has developed a parallel practice as a jazz photographer, becoming a sought-after visual artist within New York's music community. Her work has appeared in DownBeat, Guitar Player and Drum Scene magazines, capturing many of the city's leading musicians with the same sensitivity, intimacy and depth that characterise her music and theatrical storytelling.