In the January 2012 issue of DownBeat magazine (page 48, list of "Best CDs of 2011", her album "O Grande Amor", recorded in Europe with the Peter Scharli Trio, was voted one of the best releases of 2011, receiving a four and one half raving review.
[1][2] In her youth Koorax studied piano, opera, and classical music while listening to her parents' collection of Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, and Teddy Wilson.
She has recorded solo albums for the IRMA, Milestone, Mercury, EMI, JVC, King, Huks and Motéma labels, besides fourteen soundtracks for movies and TV series, and also took part in more than 200 special projects and compilations.
Koorax has performed in the U.S., Japan, Korea and many European countries (England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Finland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Portugal), appearing at jazz festivals in London, Seoul, Belgrade, Funchal, Helsinki, and Indijja.
On tour in August 2010, she recorded Arirang with Korean pop stars, Brazilian musicians Rodrigo Lima, Arnaldo DeSouteiro and Wilson Chaplin, and American jazzmen Lee Ritenour and Alan Broadbent.
Koorax's crossover classics project Opus Classico (2013) contained works by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, Fauré, Ravel and Brazilian composers Heitor Villa-Lobos, Delza Agricola, Chiquinha Gonzaga and Machado de Assis.
Her album All Around the World (2014) was recorded live in Rio, London, Paris, Sofia, Munich, Tokyo, and Seoul, with songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, and Jimi Hendrix.
Ithamara Koorax Sings The Jazz Masters, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder and dedicated to the audio engineer was released in 2017, featuring pianists Rodgers Grant and Norman Simmons, followed by 60 Years of Bossa Nova in 2018.