The hottest new musical sensation on TikTok right now is undoubtedly Stella Katherine Cole. As if grabbing the attention of Michael Bublé, James Taylor, and Meghan Trainor on social media wasn’t enough, she’s racked up over 5 million likes with her infectious covers of Sara Vaughan, Julie Andrews, Ella Fitzgerald, and other classic favorites that she brings to a new audience of eager listeners. She’s also fresh off of a successful national tour with the Postmodern Jukebox that spawned an infectious cover of Flowers by Miley Cyrus.
Stella is part of this younger generation herself, having just graduated in 2021 from Northwestern University with a double major in theatre and international relations, a German minor, and a musical theatre certificate. She graduated half a year early to start developing a pop fusion project with GRAMMY Award-winning Producer Dave O’Donnell (James Taylor, Katy Perry, Ray Charles). The resulting EP was met with great reviews from indie music publications, and the music video has been awarded in over ten international film festivals....
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The hottest new musical sensation on TikTok right now is undoubtedly Stella Katherine Cole. As if grabbing the attention of Michael Bublé, James Taylor, and Meghan Trainor on social media wasn’t enough, she’s racked up over 5 million likes with her infectious covers of Sara Vaughan, Julie Andrews, Ella Fitzgerald, and other classic favorites that she brings to a new audience of eager listeners. She’s also fresh off of a successful national tour with the Postmodern Jukebox that spawned an infectious cover of Flowers by Miley Cyrus.
Stella is part of this younger generation herself, having just graduated in 2021 from Northwestern University with a double major in theatre and international relations, a German minor, and a musical theatre certificate. She graduated half a year early to start developing a pop fusion project with GRAMMY Award-winning Producer Dave O’Donnell (James Taylor, Katy Perry, Ray Charles). The resulting EP was met with great reviews from indie music publications, and the music video has been awarded in over ten international film festivals.
Stella has proven that she is ready to stake her claim in the ever-changing, live music landscape and follow in the footsteps of inspirational artists that have come before her. Experience the magic of Stella Katherine Cole!
About Joe:
Pianist, composer, and bandleader Joe Block is a dynamic rising talent in the jazz world and beyond. He began playing classical piano at the age of two before switching to jazz in middle school. While growing up in Philadelphia, a city with a rich jazz and musical tradition, he was fortunate to learn and study from older musicians on the scene and in jazz education programs at the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts and the Kimmel Center. Joe currently resides in New York City. He has studied with Geoff Keezer, Marc Cary, Ted Rosenthal, Bruce Barth, and Frank Kimbrough.
Joe has had the opportunity to work and play with many esteemed musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel., Leslie Odom Jr., Steve Wilson, Peter Bernstein, Ari Hoenig, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jaleel Shaw, Joe Farnsworth, Eric Harland, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and The Captain Black Big Band. As an active bandleader and sideman in New York and Philadelphia, he has performed at numerous venues including Dizzy’s, The Django, Birdland, Smalls Jazz Club, Smoke Jazz Club, Bar Next Door, Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall, Shapeshifter Lab, Cafe Bohemia, Chris’ Jazz Café, South Jazz Parlor, @exuberance, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia Clef Club, Hilbert Circle Theatre (Indianapolis), Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Black Cat (San Francisco). He has also performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Belize Jazz Festival, Montclair Jazz Festival, Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, Next Generation Jazz Festival, and Telluride Jazz Festival. He leads his own quintet and trio and is the co-leader and founder of the Philadelphia Ambassador Big Band.
Joe has been nationally recognized by the National Youngarts Foundation (2017, Jazz Piano finalist and Jazz Composition honorable mention), Jazz at Lincoln Center (2016, J. Douglas White Composition Award), the Telluride Jazz Festival (2018, Telluride Jazz All-Star), and the Monterey Jazz Festival (2019, Next Generation Jazz Festival 1st Place Finalist and Outstanding Soloist), and Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS Academy 2021). In December of 2018, he served as the musical director and pianist for Wynton Marsalis’ annual holiday fundraiser and performance at the NYC Brooks Brothers Flagship Store. In December of 2019, he played a weekend with the Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet at Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia. The following weekend, he was featured in the Ari Hoenig trio. He appears on the 2020 Grammy-nominated record “The Intangible Between” (Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band). More recently, he got to perform with Eric Harland as well as the Chris Potter Quartet.
In addition to being an instrumentalist, Joe is an avid and skilled composer and arranger (ASCAP). Hailed by Jazz at Lincoln Center as one of "jazz's most promising young composers", he has been commissioned to write or arrange music for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (2019, 2020), the Philadelphia Ambassador Big Band, the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Grace Kelly, the Springfield Symphony Jazz Orchestra, and the Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, for which he arranged part of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” in 2018.
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