Brenda Earle Stokes

Brenda Earle Stokes is a rare jazz artist with a true command of both the voice and the piano.  Hailed as “a breezy delight” by Time Out New York, Brenda’s music is rooted in the jazz tradition with influences ranging from Brazilian music to music theater and rock radio.

As a bandleader she has toured clubs and festivals across the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and has released 6 albums own her own label.  Widely considered to be one of the top singer/pianists in the field, Stokes is back with her first album of completely original songs.

In her latest album Motherhood, Brenda shares the journey of motherhood with songs exploring identity, fear, expectations, body image, friendship and growth.  Rooted in her native language of jazz, Stokes drew additional inspiration from singer-songwriters, music theater, spoken word and 1960s protest songs.  Each song is richly orchestrated by a four-piece ensemble jazz ensemble which provides an energetic backdrop for Stokes’ material which is at once honest, thought provoking and laced with humor.

Brenda Earle Stokes has performed as a side person with John Riley, Dick Oatts, Joel Frahm, Roxy Coss, Wycliffe Gordon, Maurice Hines and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.  She has held residences at the Kennedy Center and Banff Center for Fine Arts, was a finalist of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition and was a winner of the IAJE Sister’s in Jazz competition, identifying her as one of the top emerging jazz artists of her generation.

Brenda Earle Stokes’ musical curiosity has led her to professional work as a choral conductor, classical vocalist, church organist, off Broadway music director, early childhood music teacher and cruise ship piano bar entertainer.  These seemingly unrelated musical experiences have helped develop her versatility and fluency as both pianist and vocalist.  “While jazz is my first love, I feel passionate about making music in many different realms.” Scratching this musical itches has deepened Stokes’ abilities and helped her to be a more fluent artist. 

Brenda Earle Stokes’ musical life started at age 4, when her parents enrolled her in classical piano lessons.  Hearing Oscar Peterson for the first time at age fifteen prompted an immediate shift to jazz. After focusing on jazz piano at York University in Toronto, Brenda ventured to the Banff Center for the Arts for a month long jazz residency in the mountains. It was there that she first performed as a vocalist, a huge step for her as an artist. “I really wanted to be taken seriously as a jazz pianist and I didn’t want anything to take away from that. When I stood up and sang for the first time at Banff, it felt so liberating to me that I knew there was no going back.”

After a few years of gigging around Toronto, Brenda sought adventure working in a singalong piano bar on cruise ships in the Caribbean. “Taking requests 6 nights a week for several years was a deep education for me.  Not only did I have to learn hundreds of songs, but I also had to learn how to hold an audience’s attention and really engage people.”  She took the proceeds from that gig and headed for New York City, where she planned to study and immerse herself in the jazz scene. She ended up at Manhattan School of Music, working on her Master’s degree in jazz piano and voice. 

“One of the first people I met in New York City was saxophonist Joel Frahm, who was a great friend, inspiration and supporter of my work.” Brenda went into the studio with Joel and his band and recorded her next album Happening, which documents her early experiences living in New York and her fresh new perspective as a composer.

Her 2009 release Songs For A New Day was a compilation of original material and garnered international critical acclaim for her work as a pianist and vocalist.  Channeling her love of the eclectic the album features her original lyrics to songs by Christian Tamburr and Joel Frahm, alongside covers of Crowded House and Keane and rounded out with jazz standards by Cole Porter and Jerome Kern.

In 2014 Brenda collaborated with producer Matt Pierson to release Right About Now, a studio album which prominently featured her original compositions.  “Right About Now was such a huge project for me and really got me on the international stage.  It is a project I am hugely proud of.” 

In 2019’s Solo Sessions Volume 1, Brenda explores the rarely-recorded format of solo piano/voice, showcasing her mesmerizing fluidity as both singer and pianist.  Recorded in a single four-hour session in her hometown of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, Brenda explores a wide spectrum of material, including jazz standards, original compositions and seldom-her compositions by Dave Brubeck and Steve Swallow.  She rounds out the recording with lush jazz arrangements of songs recorded by k.d. lang, Michael McDonald and Huey Lewis, showing the full range of her musical curiosities.

In addition to her life as performer and composer, Brenda is a well known music educator and entrepreneur.  She runs a busy private studio in New York City serving local students in person and virtually all around the globe.  An early adopter of online courses, Brenda has served hundreds of people around the world with her bestselling courses.  Her online membership The Versatile Musician contains 24 unique courses totalling over 900video tutorials and nearly 1000 pages of original print material content.  She served hundreds of students across the globe.  Her YouTube channel Piano and Voice with Brenda boasts nearly 20,000 subscribers and over 55,000 hours of viewers per month.

Brenda Earle Stokes is an engaging writer and performer, whose prowess as a vocalist and pianist is tempered with her poetic clarity.  A talent well deserving of wider recognition, Stokes is excited to expand her audience around the world.

Awards

IAJE Sister's In Jazz Winner

Mary Lou Williams Piano Competition finalist

Canada Council Grant recipient