STACEY KENT WILL SING AT THE WHITE STORK SYNAGOGUE

ON THE “I KNOW I DREAM” TOUR

Stacey Kent is a jazz singer in the tradition of the great masters, with an enormous following worldwide and numerous awards and distinctions, including a Grammy nomination. Her albums have sold over 2 million copies, earning gold, double-gold and platinum status and reaching number one in the charts throughout her career.

Her latest release, “I Know I Dream: The Orchestral Sessions” (Okeh/SONY), received an enthusiastic welcome, earning a coveted five-star review in “Downbeat” magazine. The album won “Album of the Year” in the vocal category at Japan's Jazz Awards in 2017, and “All About Jazz” described it as “an intoxicant highlighting subtle artistry… another gem in her discography that deserves special distinction”.

Stacey Kent grew up on the East Coast of the United States. She is a comparative literature graduate with a musical soul. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, a chance turn of events brought her to London, where she enrolled in music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There she met her future husband and musical partner, Jim Tomlinson. Kent’s musical journey began in childhood, when she learnt to play the piano.

Her exceptionally sensitive ear and natural voice led her to take part in school musical productions, and she could often be heard singing at impromptu concerts in her college café. Yet there was little to suggest that international fame lay ahead. She has a total of 11 studio albums, including the platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated “Breakfast On The Morning Tram” (EMI/BLUE NOTE 2007), alongside an impressive list of collaborations. Stacey has performed in over 50 countries during her career, first earning recognition in London jazz clubs before releasing the first in a series of 6 albums, “Close Your Eyes” (1997), on Candid.

Her second album, “The Tender Trap” (1999), attracted American jazz audiences when she appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” and NPR’s “All Things Considered”. More albums and awards followed. The Fred Astaire tribute “Let Yourself Go” appeared in 2000, while “Dreamsville” (2001) earned Stacey BBC Jazz Awards Jazz Vocalist of the Year. “In Love Again”, a Richard Rodgers collection, followed in 2002.

“The Boy Next Door” (2003) was her last Candid album and first to go Gold. During this period, Stacey strengthened her reputation for bringing original character to an impressive standards repertoire. Her ability to express emotion through a refined, minimalist style appeared on Jim Tomlinson’s “The Lyric” (Token), BBC Jazz Awards Album of the Year in 2006. It caught Blue Note’s attention, leading to her signing in 2007.

With each successive album, Stacey's style became more refined and her artistic vision expanded. Her search for new songs took her beyond the Great American Songbook towards French chanson and Brazilian music, increasingly important parts of her repertoire.

Stacey’s repertoire increasingly includes songs written especially for her by Jim Tomlinson with various lyricists, including Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro. The idea of original compositions arose during lunch with Ishiguro. Their conversation turned to music and repertoire, producing the idea of a song series about memory, travel and love, themes frequently present in her repertoire. The songs for “Breakfast On The Morning Tram” grew from that conversation.

Stacey suddenly transformed from an interpreter of the Great American Songbook into an artist with a deeply personal, distinctive repertoire. The first collaboration between lyricist Ishiguro and composer Tomlinson, “The Ice Hotel”, won first prize in an international songwriting competition. Since then, all Stacey's albums have included original songs composed by Tomlinson, with lyrics in English, French and Portuguese.

Kent continued recording and touring intensively. Her first Blue Note album was released in 2009, followed by the entirely French-language “Raconte-Moi”, which went Gold. She was invited to perform a French-language programme at Francofolies and honoured as a Chevalier Dans L'Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres. Her first live album, “Dreamer In Concert” (EMI 2011), followed, alongside “The Changing Lights” (Warner 2013), which reveals Brazil’s influence on Stacey’s music more than any other album.

During her first Brazilian visit in 2007, when she performed at the TIM festival, Stacey promised herself she would not return until she had learnt Portuguese. She and Jim duly enrolled on a Middlebury College summer course, where she had previously studied French, Italian and German. She returned for two further summer sessions and now speaks Portuguese fluently alongside her other languages. On later visits to Brazil, she met many musical idols, including Marcos Valle, Edu Lobo and Roberto Menescal.

She recorded with Valle and Menescal after being invited to join the album “Ao Vivo” (Sony 2013), marking 50 years of Valle’s career. A DVD and documentary about their collaboration and friendship appeared in 2016. With Roberto Menescal, Stacey recorded “Tenderly” (Sony 2015), an intimate collection of standards showcasing her crystalline voice and his warm guitar playing. Jazzwise called it “an extraordinarily beautiful meeting of minds”. Her first standards album in ten years, it reveals her growing interpretative talent.

Stacey’s “I Know I Dream” tour continues around the world, with sold-out concerts and festival appearances. Full dates are available on her BandsInTown page.

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