Johnaye Kendrick can’t remember the exact moment she realized she could sing.

“We’re all born singing. We come out (of the womb) screaming, and that’s music, man,” said the only vocalist and only female studying at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, housed at Loyola.

For this San Diego native, jazz music wasn’t important to the other members of her household. When she was 15, Kendrick said she had a difficult time convincing her mother to allow her to take violin lessons instead of the piano lessons she had been taking since she was five. Her mother disagreed, despite Kendrick’s tenacity.

She taught herself to play violin in sixth grade and continued to study it through high school at the San Diego School of the Creative and Performing Arts.

She played second principle violin in Youth Symphony and won a national scholarship for free violin lessons from William Pourdan, the Associate President of the American String Teacher Association. But in her junior year of high school, Kendrick started singing jazz and decided to switch from violin to voice.

This decision didn’t please her mother, however, who told Kendrick that if she stayed in San Diego to become a lawyer, she would pay her tuition, but if she went to Chicago to pursue music, she was on her own.

So Kendrick became the first of her siblings to both graduate high school and pursue a career in music.

She studied jazz at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where she had her first voice lesson.

“I felt insecure because I was so far behind,” Kendrick said about her overwhelming experience in an honors voice class.

“I had a teacher who asked me if I had a backup plan (instead of singing). I told her I don’t believe in backup plans,” she said. “(Singing) is what I’m going to do.”

Kendrick graduated from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich., with a achelor of music in 2005.

Kendrick auditioned for the Monk Institute with four other vocal finalists, including one of her best friends, who is now a backup singer for Queen Latifah.

The panel of judges included jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard and Thelonious Monk Jr., but Kendrick said it didn’t rattle her nerves.

“I don’t get nervous anymore,” she said. “I concentrated so much on the music, I forgot who the judges were. I didn’t remember to get nervous.”

Later that night at the dinner table with the other finalists, Kendrick found out she was chosen as the vocalist.

“I had to be discreet about the phone call, but then all of their phones started ringing (because they were rejected). It was really awkward,” Kendrick said.

Now Kendrick spends her days and nights rehearsing four hours a day, writing up to four compositions per week, taking a graduate level research class and teaching at McDonough 35 High School as part of the institute’s public school outreach program.

Kendrick said her mother finally supports her budding music career, which Kendrick hopes will one day lead her to New York to become a full-time singer.

“I try to be really honest and sincere with the music,” Kendrick said. “When you’re honest and real, the music takes the forefront, and you take a step back. I think I accomplish that.”

Colin Stranahan, the Institute’s drummer, agreed.

“(Johnaye) has a strong personal identity,” he said. “She’s very honest and real. She has a wide range of knowledge of the history of music and can adapt to any musical situation. She has a unique and traditional voice, and what I love about her is she’s not (just) a singer, she’s a musician, and that’s really great.”

Even though singing has taken her around the world and has won her countless awards, Kendrick considers being accepted into the Institute her biggest honor.

“Any minute with Terence is a blessing,” she said. “They’re so generous with their knowledge. They’re amazing and talented musicians, and I’m so fortunate to be working with them. I’m so lucky. I hit the jazz education lottery.”

Briana Prevost can be reached at [email protected].