Born in Norman Oklahoma in 1985, Champian is recognized as the “most gifted pure Jazz singer of her generation” (Mark Stryker, the Detroit Free Press). A Jazz pianist and vocalist for more than 20 years, she has released 18 albums as a leader and has performed in more than 25 countries, both in concert and on TV. She has been recognized with numerous awards, including Album of the Year in the NYC Jazz Record (2018, 2020, 2023) and Pianist and Vocalist of the Year (2019) by Hot House Magazine. She regularly appears in both the Jazz Journalist Awards and Downbeats Rising Star Critics Poll. Champian began her career at the age of 10, performing for Jazz legend and family friend Clark Terry’s 75th Birthday Party. Since then she has appeared on stage with Jazz royalty such as Lou Donaldson, Frank Wess, Scott Hamilton, Nicholas Payton, the WDR Jazz Orchestra, Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton, Buster Williams, Jimmy Cobb and Louis Hayes, who performed with Champian in a tribute to Horace Silver for her senior recital upon graduation from SUNY Purchase in 2006. After moving to New York in 2003, she began performing at Birdland, the Jazz Corner of the World, where she has regularly appeared for over 20 years. In 2023 Champian & Birdland celebrated this longtime friendship with the release of “Meet Me at Birdland'', an album which was hailed as the Best Vocal Album of the year by the NYC Jazz Record. In demand worldwide as a performer, Champian has appeared at such unique venues as the San Fermines Festival in Pamplona Spain, the Tangier Jazz Festival, the Opera House in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, The Tongyeong Opera House in South Korea, Lincoln Center in NYC and the San Diego Symphony Hall. She performed in the Emmy Nominated TV special “Take Me Back to Manhattan,” recorded at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Since her debut album with David Berger’s Jazz Orchestra, simply titled “Champian”, was released in 2007, she has released 18 albums featuring her music in many different formats. A favorite of the duo setting, she has recorded 2 duo albums with famed Canadian saxophonist and record producer Cory Weeds (“Dream a Little” and “Every Now and Then”), a duo album with her father, Jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist Stephen Fulton, titled “Live from Lockdown” honoring their pandemic streaming concert series of the same name, and a duo album with Swedish altoist and clarinetist Klas Lindquist, expected to be released in 2025. Several albums feature special guests, such as the 2012 release “Sings and Swings” with Eric Alexander and Champian’s 2020 release “Birdsong” celebrating the music of Charlie Parker featuring Scott Hamilton and Stephen Fulton; called “buoyant” by the New York Times, “Birdsong” was featured as Album of the Week by WRTI Philadelphia, JazzFM UK, and TSF Jazz Paris. Fan favorites include “Speechless”, a strictly instrumental album featuring her own compositions, “After Dark” with Jazz luminaries David Williams, Lewis Nash and Stephen Fulton honoring the music of Dinah Washington, and the two disc set “The Stylings of Champian” featuring her longtime working band of 20 years: Fukushi Tainaka on drums, Hide Tanaka on bass and Stephen Fulton on flugelhorn. A recent project in collaboration with Jazz at the Ballroom titled “Flying High” features Champian in the role as pianist and artistic director and she accompanies 6 vocalists performing standards of the big band era. As said by All About Jazz, “Champian does everything astonishingly well.” “Every song is a work of art in Champian’s hands and voice” (the Aboslute Sound). Her “galvanizing presence” (the New Yorker) and her alluring musical presentation have made her “a charming young steward of the mainstream Jazz tradition.” (The New York Times)