about sybil evans
While some industrious individuals are busy looking for their second act, 90-year-old Sybil Evans is still going strong, forging ahead into her third. The dynamic, Brooklyn-born and raised nonagenarian vocalist was inspired by her 90th birthday to return to her love of bringing her pop-jazz stylings before a live audience forming a talented trio playing her favorite music.
Evans, who began entertaining at the tender age of five, belting out “I Only Have Eyes for You,” at a family wedding, left her aunts wanting for more and a lot more followed in the years ahead. Starring in college musicals while attending Syracuse University, singing in the late 1960s up through the early 1980s, Sybil would go on to a lengthy, successful 32-year high school teaching career while simultaneously juggling jazz gigs as a member of Musicians Union Local 802.
Retiring in 1989 from New York City’s public school system where she taught high school social studies and rose to the role of assistant principal and social studies chair, the then 55-year-old went on to her second act, as a Conflict Coach, building a business where she trained Fortune 500 managers skills in negotiation, conflict resolution, and diversity. Despite a busy schedule as a sought-after speaker at national conferences and corporate events, Ms. Evans always carved out time to seek out local jazz clubs and perform a few numbers at open mic nights. After penning “HOT BUTTONS: How to Resolve Conflict and Cool Everyone Down (Harper-Collins, 2000), she spent two years delighting audiences on TV, radio, and national book tours – and every now and then, because music was so dear to her, she offered listeners snippets of a song.
In 2008, at 74, an age where many are winding down into retirement, Sybil released her debut CD, “Can’t Get Out of this Mood,” creating a sensuous, playful and deeply romantic aura with her unique stamp on the six memorable pop-jazz tunes featured on the extended play disc.
Through the years, the engaging and outspoken songstress -- hailed by legendary night club proprietor Jan Wallman for her “class and sophistication” -- performed in an array of notable New York City jazz clubs including Wallman’s famed club on Cornelia Street, Johnny’s Pub, Horn of Plenty, the Lenox Lounge, Porter’s, Cleopatra’s Needle, and Trudi Mann’s Butterfield 8. While many iconic nightclubs came and went with the city’s changing landscape, nothing had so great an effect on music and nightlife like the Covid-19 pandemic, which left Evans without an audience for the past several years.
Spurred on by her monumental birthday in March 2024, Sybil knew it was time to return to publicly performing the music that had meant so much to her in years past. While her trademark bob hairstyle is now grey, her glamorous flair and passion for performing pop-jazz standards remains, shining brightly in her memorable performances.
Evans, who began entertaining at the tender age of five, belting out “I Only Have Eyes for You,” at a family wedding, left her aunts wanting for more and a lot more followed in the years ahead. Starring in college musicals while attending Syracuse University, singing in the late 1960s up through the early 1980s, Sybil would go on to a lengthy, successful 32-year high school teaching career while simultaneously juggling jazz gigs as a member of Musicians Union Local 802.
Retiring in 1989 from New York City’s public school system where she taught high school social studies and rose to the role of assistant principal and social studies chair, the then 55-year-old went on to her second act, as a Conflict Coach, building a business where she trained Fortune 500 managers skills in negotiation, conflict resolution, and diversity. Despite a busy schedule as a sought-after speaker at national conferences and corporate events, Ms. Evans always carved out time to seek out local jazz clubs and perform a few numbers at open mic nights. After penning “HOT BUTTONS: How to Resolve Conflict and Cool Everyone Down (Harper-Collins, 2000), she spent two years delighting audiences on TV, radio, and national book tours – and every now and then, because music was so dear to her, she offered listeners snippets of a song.
In 2008, at 74, an age where many are winding down into retirement, Sybil released her debut CD, “Can’t Get Out of this Mood,” creating a sensuous, playful and deeply romantic aura with her unique stamp on the six memorable pop-jazz tunes featured on the extended play disc.
Through the years, the engaging and outspoken songstress -- hailed by legendary night club proprietor Jan Wallman for her “class and sophistication” -- performed in an array of notable New York City jazz clubs including Wallman’s famed club on Cornelia Street, Johnny’s Pub, Horn of Plenty, the Lenox Lounge, Porter’s, Cleopatra’s Needle, and Trudi Mann’s Butterfield 8. While many iconic nightclubs came and went with the city’s changing landscape, nothing had so great an effect on music and nightlife like the Covid-19 pandemic, which left Evans without an audience for the past several years.
Spurred on by her monumental birthday in March 2024, Sybil knew it was time to return to publicly performing the music that had meant so much to her in years past. While her trademark bob hairstyle is now grey, her glamorous flair and passion for performing pop-jazz standards remains, shining brightly in her memorable performances.