Tara Middleton is a 2022 Grammy Nominee , a 2019 and 2022 Pew Fellowship nominated vocalist, violinist, and lyricist, and a 2021  Doris Duke Foundation/ NYC Community Trust Grant Recipient.  Currently, she is the vocalist for the world renowned Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen, she also leads her own ensemble Jupiter Blue .She has studied under several prominent musicians, including Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, Booker Rowe, Gerald Price, Dr. George Allen, and Patty Wackenhut. In the 1990s, Tara co-founded The Foundations Singers, an African folksong oriented a cappella trio that garnered wide acclaim throughout the tri-state folk music community. Since then, she has performed and recorded as a featured vocalist with several ensembles, incorporating a broad range of songbooks and styles, including straight-ahead jazz, Portuguese Brazilian, Afro-Cuban/Caribbean, and Operatic avant-garde.

Most recently she has worked as a vocalist and instrumentalist with Bowerbird's Arcana New Music Ensemble, and as a recording artist, and performer with Philadelphia Jazz Project. Recently Tara was commissioned to compose an original work for BalletX co-writing her first ballet “Twelve Bells”, she has collaborated with Nick Millevoi's Desertion Trio to rave reviews in Rolling Stone magazine. Tara’s most recent work can be heard on the newly released Sun Ra Arkestra album “ Swirling” in which she wrote the lyrics for the title track.