Stella Basss

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Stella studied music from a young age, starting piano accordion lessons at five, followed later by singing and piano, both through the Royal Irish Academy of Music. A degree in Computer Science from University College Dublin followed, and in 2017 she completed a Master’s Degree in Music in Dublin’s Conservatory of Music. She used the unexpected downtime of the pandemic to build on her undergrad IT skills to study Music Production with Berklee College, Boston, and Music Composition & Arranging with Studio Orchestrations, Belfast, which has led her into the fascinating world of writing, arranging and producing sync music for TV, film and gaming; she has already had several pieces of her original music signed exclusively to Warner Chappell Music in the USA.

That said, her heart will always be, first and foremost, as a singer, story-teller and concert performer. Alongside her studies, many years of singing in musicals, concerts and as bandleader at the bandstand helped Stella finely-tune her craft, and her versatile repertoire crosses over jazz, classical and musical theatre, though she is still most at home singing her beloved jazz standards, inspired by her big influences, Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand.

Stella’s second studio album is a collaboration with the acclaimed Johnny Taylor Trio, featuring a mix of jazz standards and some new songs written by Stella. Since she released her first album in 2014, she has performed at all the major jazz festivals in Ireland, as well as performances in Pizza Express London Pheasantry and jazz venues in Germany, France and Australia. She was a headline act at the 2017 Cork Jazz Festival in a concert she devised with acclaimed jazz guitarist Hugh Buckley, which paid tribute to the Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass collaborations (coincidentally, Joe had borrowed Hugh’s guitar at a jam session many years earlier!). This show also toured Ireland that year, and sold out twice in Dublin’s National Concert Hall. She had similar sell-out  success in the NCH with her jazz-inspired interpretations of the music of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim; this concert also toured the island of Ireland with support from the Arts Council. Her first album gets regular radio airplay: it was Album of the Week on Ireland’s national RTE Lyric FM, and has since made waves on jazz stations in the UK, the USA, Germany and Switzerland. A big fan too is Amy Winehouse’s mum who got in touch with Stella to say how much she loved Stella’s version on her album of Amy’s Back to Black.

No stranger to the art of the big band, Stella sings with the Hot House Big Band for their monthly residency in Dublin, has recorded with the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, and she leads her own quartet with whom she tours and performs her own much-loved weekly jazz residency show.

She has also branched out into radio broadcasting, having presented and produced a music show on Dublin City FM for over 3 years, and has also been a presenter on Ireland’s beloved Christmas FM. She has also become an accomplished voiceover artist, recording radio and TV voiceovers for private and corporate clients.

As well as theatre concerts and shows, Stella regularly performs at private and corporate events and weddings in Ireland and overseas, including for the Ireland Funds in Hong Kong, St Patrick’s Day Ball in Oman, The Guinness Six Nations, The Ryder Cup and the Heineken Cup. She is the preferred supplier of jazz music for two of Ireland’s top luxury 5* venues; The Merrion Hotel and No 25 Fitzwilliam Place