Aina Kemanis (US) b. 1952. Performed with Future Song at the JAZZPAR 2001 Concerts.

The singer is a native of Berkeley, California, but her father is from Riga, hence the Latvian name. With a folk/rock background Kemanis has from an early age been interested in Medieval and Renaissance music and has sung and played recorder in various ensembles. From 1979 through 1984, while living in Europe, she became involved in contemporary jazz and improvised music as well as singing in numerous dance and theater projects. For two years she was part of an Oakland-based eastern European women's chorus. The longest musical journey, though, has been the current one with Marilyn Mazur, which began in 1988 and certainly has not been terminated yet.

Kemanis is not a singer in a traditional sense. She is an often wordless vocalist who textures musical landscapes with a personal recognizable timbre. Her ethereal voice is impossible to pinpoint into fixed definitions of genre, age or nationality.

Aina Kemanis has among others toured and recorded with Barre Phillips, John Surman, Adelhard Roidinger and Alex Cline.