BIO...
Growing up in a family of musicians, Hudson Valley - based Judy Kass began playing at an early age moving from her classical piano training to accompanying the songs she soon started to write on both keyboard and guitar. Her music reflects the diverse genres and styles of the musicians she listened to from Laura Nyro, Janis Ian, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young to Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn, Keith Jarrett and Rachmaninoff.
Judy spent her teens and early twenties making music but graduate studies and other life ventures drew her away from regular performance although she continued to write and play. A passion for music education led her to found a community program (MusicWorks) in 2008 that provides talented students from low income families the opportunity to receive private lessons and mentoring. Funded by grants and community donations, MusicWorks has continued to grow since its inception giving students and their families the gift of serious music study and professional live performances.
The loss of nearly 300 colleagues to the 9/11 terror attacks propelled a shift in focus to healing herself and others and a return to her first love of acoustic music performance. The stories she gathered along the way together with some of her own would inspire the songs that grace Judy's debut album, Better Things (2014) and her second album Beyond the Ash and Steel (2016). Both albums have received strong airplay, appearing on the Folk DJ List of Top Albums and Songs charts for months after their release and on the Folk DJ List of Top albums for the years 2014 and 2016 respectively.
Judy's 2017 single, “Look at Us Marching Now’ caught the attention of Christine Lavin, who created a music video of the song highlighting images from The Women’s March in three cities (https://vimeo.com/209863024). A finalist in the Philadelphia Songwriters Project and Rhode Island Songwriting Association's 2017 competitions as well as the South Florida Folk Festival's 2018 Singer/Songwriter Competition, Judy was also named a Top 5 Winner in the Singer/Songwriter category of the 19th Great American Song Contest, and a First Place Winner in the contest's 2019 Singer/Songwriter category. When not performing solo, Judy can also be heard in a variety of regional venues playing together with award winning artists Amy Soucy and Glen Roethel in their harmony driven trio "Us!" (ustriomusic.com). Their song "No More Crying" was selected for a Gold award in the Open category of the 36th Mid-Atlantic Song Contest and the trio's song, "Elevator Speech was recently named a Finalist in the 2024 contest's Freedom category.
Judy’s latest solo album release, New Skin (2025), is an eclectic mix of songs that speak to various aspects of navigating life during unprecedented times --from reframing involuntary detours and moving through painful changes to poignant observations on the state of our fragmented world.
As in her first two albums, Better Things (2014) and Beyond the Ash and Steel (2016), Judy’s talents as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer and arranger shine in lyrical narratives, exquisite melodies and rich harmonies that showcase her transporting voice and command of her instruments.
"New Skin" which features co-writes with renowned artists Sloan Wainwright, Glen Roethel, Dan Berggren, Jon Shain and Kellie Lin Knot, was co-produced by celebrated folk musicians Mark Dann and Pat Wictor. It debuted at #4 on the Folk Alliance Top Albums Chart for July 2025.