Junior Alicia Varcoe’s rich jazz vocals have been heard everywhere on Elon University’s campus, from Midnight Meals to performances with the Elon Jazz Ensemble. With the release of her debut jazz album, they will likely be heard on a much larger scale.

Varcoe is recording “Since I Fell for You” as part of her College Fellows thesis project and is planning on a fall 2012 release. But Varcoe has been preparing for this moment for most of her life.

“Growing up, there was always a piano in the house,” Varcoe said. “My mom would play, and I would walk over to the piano and try to play what I heard, so my parents started me with piano lessons when I was five.”

But Varcoe’s particular interest in jazz music did not begin until the fall of her freshman year at Elon.

“I don’t have any fond memories of listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra as a child, and I don’t remember where I first heard jazz at all,” Varcoe said. “My piano teacher always told me that I had that ‘jazz feeling.’ Good jazz has a rhythm that swings, and I always liked that.”

Varcoe played the piano in her jazz band in middle and high school but didn’t start singing jazz until her first week of college.

“I didn’t want to play piano anymore, because people at home weren’t taking me seriously as a singer,” she said. “I just tried out to sing and didn’t tell anyone I could play piano, and got lucky, I guess.”

Varcoe said recording an album has been a unique learning process. She is working with Jon Metzger, associate professor of music, to put the entire album together.

“This is a huge project that will fill up every moment of our two years together,” Metzger said.

With the help of professional musicians and Bryan Baker, senior sound and video specialist for the McEwen School of Communications, Varcoe has recorded 11 tracks for the album. Nine of them are arrangements of jazz standards, including “The Nearness of You,” with two original compositions.

Varcoe plans on having an album release concert in the fall, when she will make the CD available to the general public.

“It’s definitely a jazz album, but I don’t want anyone to think they won’t enjoy it because it’s jazz,” she said. “I think a lot of people will like it.”

Metzger said he expects Varcoe’s album to serve as a “launching pad” for her career as a jazz vocalist.

“I am very eager for our music students to have every opportunity to compete in their respective marketplaces,” Metzger said. “Having this professional quality CD recording as part of her jazz vocalist promotional packet will give Alicia an enormous head start on what lies ahead for her in her career.”

Before her album is released, Varcoe will continue to perform on campus. She said she typically performs three times a year with the Elon Jazz Ensemble, whose April 13 performance is fast approaching. Varcoe also performed at Midnight Meals March 15 with sophomore Brian Magna on alto saxophone, senior Brian Gilbert on guitar, junior Ben Soldate on bass and junior John Mullen on drums.

Varcoe has also sung several times at Jazebel’s Jazz Bistro in Burlington.

“It’s a really intimate space, and the people are always great,” Varcoe said. “It takes a community effort to keep places like that alive, and Jazebel’s is a great opportunity for musicians like me to get out and play for a crowd. Any time I’m singing jazz with my friends, I’m going to have a good time.”

Varcoe has also taken the stage internationally, performing at the Consulate General of the United States in Hamburg, Germany, Roskilde Jazz Days in Denmark and for an audience of more than 5,000 in The Hague.

Varcoe plans to get her master’s degree in jazz vocal performance so she can hopefully teach in a private studio or at the college level.

“I want to sing, absolutely, but I realize that working as a professional musician is hard, and I’ll have to utilize every talent and skill I have to make a living out of it,” Varcoe said. “But I would love to say I make my living as a professional musician.”

Metzger said he has no doubt about Varcoe’s future in jazz vocal performance.

“Every note Alicia sings on this CD and in public after her Elon years will speak well for our program here and our university,” Metzger said. “Remember her name. You’ll feel especially proud hearing it again many years from now.”