LaSonya Natividad is a Rochester Minnesota based vocal artist hailing from the great state of Louisiana. Her unique sound is a blend of southern gospel with jazz influences. She has a vocal range from mezzo soprano to contralto. Some of her vocal influences include the first lady of song Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, India Arie, Jill Scott and Mahalia Jackson.
She received her music training in the church at age 6; and sang her first solo in 3rd grade; the Star Spangled Banner. She went on to sing in high school with the school chorus which included some regional and state level competitive singing earning her a superior rating and scholarships to LSU to major in music.
Little known fact is she dabbled in playing the bass clarinet and bass drum in high school for both concert and marching band. During her senior year, she was granted the mantel of drum major.
She continued singing in various community gospel choirs around her home town of Tallulah, Louisiana until she took a break except for special occasions to focus on establishing her medical career as a nurse, now Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, Masters of Science in Nursing, Certified Nurse Practitioner and Masters of Business administration.
In 2003, she moved to Rochester Minnesota where she could get back to her first love, singing where it all began for her, in the church. She became the minster of music at Vision Church where she lead praise and worship and directed the choir. Shortly thereafter, she began singing for charity events where her vocal talent caught the attention of Spectrum Audio owner Daniel Van Hook who encouraged her to get involved with the local music scene thereby introducing her to her first music ensemble 2’Oclock Jump. Before joining 2 O’clock jump, she shyly participated in the 2009 Roch Star competition earning her 1st runner up but she did not let that deter her. She sang in various Mayo Clinic functions for noon hour Thursdays on First entertainment before having her debut trio performance at Canadian Honker Restaurant with Mike King on guitar and Mike Sloane on bass. The following year she partnered with the talented Maurice Toussaint for the annual Juneteenth Festival where they both caught the eye of the band leader of KnuFunk Doug Porter. Later that year they all collaborated for the annual NAACP fundraiser. Their love of music revived the band KnuFunk with whom she has performed at countless venues.
In the interim, she partnered with local house music DJ Tony Fuel to record her first original song Open Up which landed on the underground house music charts and has been remixed numerous times. She has since recorded two other songs with him.
At the end of her tenure with KnuFunk she decided to try her hand at a new sound, Rock; joining the already established band LeadFoot. Covid 19 happened and changed the lives of some many thereby transitioning the direction of rock band to more of a soul, variety music band now named Soul Train. The Jazz scene changed as well transitioning the sound of 2 o’clock jump to the Madison Parish Ensemble to include some R&B favorites.
She has collaborated with many amazingly talented local and regional artists and will continue to do so stretching her reach into the acting scene where she made her small cast acting debut playing 7 South African characters, singing in 3 different languages with a little African inspired dancing in the Syringa Tree directed by acting director the Rochester Civic Theater Misha Johnson.
