Becca Stevens

Hailing from New York City, singer and songwriter Becca Stevens applies her classical training on guitar and voice to crafting songs that merge jazz, folk, and pop in a personal style. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she first encountered music through her father, a composer and multi-instrumentalist, and her mother, an opera singer, as the three performed together in a family band. During her teenage years she took up classical guitar studies while singing jazz standards and Appalachian folk pieces at area venues. Following graduation from high school she continued refining her technique as a classical guitar major at the North Carolina School of the Arts before completing a B.F.A. in vocal jazz and composition at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. Beyond her solo work, Stevens has collaborated onstage with drummer Eric Harland, pianist Brad Mehldau, vocalist José James, guitarist Lionel Loueke, and additional leading figures. Her first solo release, the 2008 album Tea Bye Sea, highlighted an unconventional and stylistically adventurous method to pop songwriting. The 2011 successor Weightless featured a guest vocal from Gretchen Parlato and presented fresh interpretations of material by Animal Collective and Iron & Wine. In 2015 she issued Perfect Animal, produced by Scott Solter (St. Vincent, Spoon) and containing covers of tracks by Frank Ocean, Usher, and Steve Winwood. Two years afterward came Regina, an album drawing inspiration from historical, literary, and folkloric queens such as England’s Queen Elizabeth I.