Biography:
Jamiia Franklin is an American musician, arranger, and composer. Jamiia has always been passionate about performing music. Classically trained in Oboe and Clarinet performance, Jamiia enjoys diversifying her repertoire and seeks to constantly improve as a musician. From this inspiration, Jamiia became proficient in multiple other instruments, including the alto saxophone, bass guitar, trumpet, bassoon, and alto horn. Using these skills, Jamiia performs live for audiences, works as a sub for local orchestras, and releases music under artist names: Jamiia Franklin and Jamiia Love.
Jamiia’s talents and passion for performance have led to her joining several community ensembles, including the Eastern Michigan University Symphony Orchestra, the EMU Wind Symphony, the EMU Marching Band, the EMU Oboe Studio, Ann Arbor Civic Band, the Washtenaw Community Concert Band, and the Town Band. Jamiia also serves as a Substitute teacher for the local orchestra, Ypsilanti Youth Orchestra, and leads the SMSE Jazz ensemble.
Using her understanding of wind instruments, Jamiia began arranging and composing works for small wind ensembles. She often adapts and arranges for traditional and non-traditional ensembles, including the Eastern Michigan Oboe studio, Iridescent Bloom, The Sandwich Quartet, and SMSE Jazz. Jamiia takes much inspiration from video game music, film scores, romantic, and jazz works. As an artist, these influences have led Jamiia to the release both covers and original music within the classical, romantic, latin, jazz, and new wave genres, see Jamiia’s Discography for more.
Live Performances:
Jamiia has selected several videos that showcase her abilities as a musician. Included on this playlist are the dates recorded, the composers of the works, the context of a performance, and any collaborators involved.
Featured groups include: SMSE Jazz, The Sandwich Quartet, and Iridescent Bloom.
Inspiration:
Jamiia is inspired by works in several genres, especially bossa-nova, jazz, pop, rnb, and video game soundtracks. Much of her drive to play the oboe stemmed from listening to the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack (especially KH2 and Birth by Sleep).
Composers who’ve influenced Jamiia as a composer/arranger include:
- Yoko Shimomura (for her work in the Kingdom Hearts series)
- Carlos Eiene (for his arrangements and original works)
- Hitomi Satō (for her work with Pokémon)
- Leroy Anderson (for his fun and simple compositions)
- Yasunori Nishiki (for his music in Octapath Traveler)
- Manaka Kataoka (for her work with Nintendo, especially Animal Crossing New Leaf)
- Nobuo Uematsu (for his work with the Final Fantasy series)
- Kristin Naigus (for her arrangements)
Musicians/artists influential to Jamiia can be found in her Official Spotify playlist.
YouTube Playlist
Jamiia’s “Less Classical Oboe” playlist features the oboe within different genres of music.
Spotify Playlist
Here are Jamiia’s picks of tunes that inspire her performance, writing, and mood. As an artist, these songs are amongst the most influential to her sound.
Jamiia’s Gallery:
Several photos provided by photographers Rex Timbs, Kelli Firouzi, Ada Verloren, and Eric Mathew for promotional use.
Jamiia with Sax taken by Ada Verloren during photo shoot Jamiia Promotional Photo taken by Eric in Celebration of Graduation Jamiia Franklin with Oboe
Taken by Ada Verloren during photo shootJamiia Franklin With Iridescent Bloom 2024, Rex Timbs
