STELLA HEATH - BIO
Stella Heath has many stories to tell. Since emerging on the Bay Area jazz scene in 2014, she’s become one of the busiest and most consistently captivating vocalists in the region. Her debut album, For Billie, flows out of one of her signature endeavors, The Billie Holiday Project. Scheduled for release by Matterhorn Records on May 15, 2026, it’s a gorgeous, consistently captivating album that illuminates the treacherous emotional terrain that Holiday navigated as a soul-bearing singer.
“Billie is one of those rare artists that hold up a mirror and reflect back the deep and complex emotions we all hold inside,” says Heath, who’s earned a devoted following with her lustrous voice, supple sense of swing, and wide-ranging command of a vast repertoire. A dedicated educator, she’s led a Gypsy jazz combo, created historically rooted shows focusing on the early music of the Nat “King” Cole Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, and Edith Piaf, and worked with many of the Bay Area’s finest improvisers.
A Sonoma County native, Heath grew up in Petaluma, raised by her mother, a passionate lover of music. She immersed her daughter in the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald “and all kinds of different artists, the Buena Vista Social Club, Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan, Latin jazz and classical music,” Heath recalls. She began singing in a choir and studying classical voice and piano at the age of 8. Participating in community theatre, musicals and operas, Heath performed around Sonoma, Marin, and San Francisco throughout her youth.
At 16, she spent two intensive years at Interlochen Arts Academy studying acting. With her creativity stimulated by the arts-centric environment she went on to Syracuse University, graduating with degrees in acting (with emphasis on Shakespeare) and Cultural Geography. “Shakespeare is akin to music; beautiful imagery and musicality to the language and a rhythm under it,” Heath says. “But acting is so insular, I wanted to study something that was more global about humans and society.”
Moving to New York City after she graduated in 2009 Heath plunged into the Gotham drama scene, acquiring an agent and working in both NYC and in regional Shakespeare productions and musicals. But in the course of her five-year New York sojourn she rekindled her passion for jazz via legendary Harlem pianist Marjorie Elliot’s weekly parlor concerts in her Sugar Hill apartment.
Living a few miles north in Inwood, Heath started attending every Sunday, informal sessions “that felt like jazz church, something sacred and intimate,” she says. “Marjorie invited me to come play music, and we started going through the Real Book, finding songs and keys. It was like listening to my mom’s records, and that was my pathway back to jazz.”
Heath assembled a combo and started picking up gigs, often including chanson and French standards in the mix. “I’ve sung in French since I was a kid,” she says. “I love the language and culture, and that led to me picking up quite a few Gypsy jazz gigs.”
Moving back to the North Bay in 2014, she immediately established herself on the Bay Area’s thriving Hot Club scene, leading the Gypsy jazz group French Oak (now known as Bandjango Collectif). Two self-produced albums helped spread Heath’s reputation, and after a few years she decided to spread her wings with The Billie Holiday Project.
“I spent about a year researching Billie, listening to her entire catalogue, creating the arc of the show, narratively and musically,” Heath says. Working closely with pianist and arranger Neil Fontano, they selected repertoire, “figured out basic arrangements and debuted in 2019, selling out most of our shows,” Heath says. “And then everything we’d lined up for 2020 got cancelled.”
During the pandemic she started collaborating online with Cincinnati pianist, singer and songwriter Ben Levin, releasing the 2023 EP Waiting Just for You on VizzTone Label Group. Bassist Marcus Shelby, artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, recruited Heath as Education Coordinator in 2022 to bring jazz education into public schools and communities around Sonoma County.
“I whole heartedly believe that jazz, a uniquely American art form, should be held up and celebrated in our society and should be a vital educational component in our school system here in the United States,” Heath says.
Just off the heels of the pandemic, Heath became a mother, giving birth to twins (a boy and a girl). She’s continued to expand her creative reach, developing a show in 2022 on early Nat “King” Cole and the “King” Cole Trio with jazz guitarist and historian Nick Rossi. And in 2025 she debuted “Stella Swings Ella,” which incorporates historical information and stories about Fitzgerald’s life interspersed with the music.
Scaling up The Billie Holiday Project post-pandemic, she and Fontano expanded the arrangements for a 10-piece ensemble, joined on stage by professional swing dancers at larger venues. She’s continued to extend her creative reach, developing a show in 2022 on Nat “King” Cole and the Nat “King” Cole Trio with the jazz guitarist and historian Nick Rossi. And in 2025 she debuted “Stella Swings Ella,” which incorporates historical information and stories about Fitzgerald’s life interspersed with the music.
“I discovered through creating The Billie Holiday Project that I love the historical research and crafting the arc of the show,” she says. “It adds so much to know some of the history of these legendary artists and songs.”
With the release of For Billie, Heath is stepping onto an international stage, ensuring that Holiday’s legacy burns brightly in the 21st century.
-Written By Andrew Gilbert
“Billie is one of those rare artists that hold up a mirror and reflect back the deep and complex emotions we all hold inside,” says Heath, who’s earned a devoted following with her lustrous voice, supple sense of swing, and wide-ranging command of a vast repertoire. A dedicated educator, she’s led a Gypsy jazz combo, created historically rooted shows focusing on the early music of the Nat “King” Cole Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, and Edith Piaf, and worked with many of the Bay Area’s finest improvisers.
A Sonoma County native, Heath grew up in Petaluma, raised by her mother, a passionate lover of music. She immersed her daughter in the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald “and all kinds of different artists, the Buena Vista Social Club, Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan, Latin jazz and classical music,” Heath recalls. She began singing in a choir and studying classical voice and piano at the age of 8. Participating in community theatre, musicals and operas, Heath performed around Sonoma, Marin, and San Francisco throughout her youth.
At 16, she spent two intensive years at Interlochen Arts Academy studying acting. With her creativity stimulated by the arts-centric environment she went on to Syracuse University, graduating with degrees in acting (with emphasis on Shakespeare) and Cultural Geography. “Shakespeare is akin to music; beautiful imagery and musicality to the language and a rhythm under it,” Heath says. “But acting is so insular, I wanted to study something that was more global about humans and society.”
Moving to New York City after she graduated in 2009 Heath plunged into the Gotham drama scene, acquiring an agent and working in both NYC and in regional Shakespeare productions and musicals. But in the course of her five-year New York sojourn she rekindled her passion for jazz via legendary Harlem pianist Marjorie Elliot’s weekly parlor concerts in her Sugar Hill apartment.
Living a few miles north in Inwood, Heath started attending every Sunday, informal sessions “that felt like jazz church, something sacred and intimate,” she says. “Marjorie invited me to come play music, and we started going through the Real Book, finding songs and keys. It was like listening to my mom’s records, and that was my pathway back to jazz.”
Heath assembled a combo and started picking up gigs, often including chanson and French standards in the mix. “I’ve sung in French since I was a kid,” she says. “I love the language and culture, and that led to me picking up quite a few Gypsy jazz gigs.”
Moving back to the North Bay in 2014, she immediately established herself on the Bay Area’s thriving Hot Club scene, leading the Gypsy jazz group French Oak (now known as Bandjango Collectif). Two self-produced albums helped spread Heath’s reputation, and after a few years she decided to spread her wings with The Billie Holiday Project.
“I spent about a year researching Billie, listening to her entire catalogue, creating the arc of the show, narratively and musically,” Heath says. Working closely with pianist and arranger Neil Fontano, they selected repertoire, “figured out basic arrangements and debuted in 2019, selling out most of our shows,” Heath says. “And then everything we’d lined up for 2020 got cancelled.”
During the pandemic she started collaborating online with Cincinnati pianist, singer and songwriter Ben Levin, releasing the 2023 EP Waiting Just for You on VizzTone Label Group. Bassist Marcus Shelby, artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, recruited Heath as Education Coordinator in 2022 to bring jazz education into public schools and communities around Sonoma County.
“I whole heartedly believe that jazz, a uniquely American art form, should be held up and celebrated in our society and should be a vital educational component in our school system here in the United States,” Heath says.
Just off the heels of the pandemic, Heath became a mother, giving birth to twins (a boy and a girl). She’s continued to expand her creative reach, developing a show in 2022 on early Nat “King” Cole and the “King” Cole Trio with jazz guitarist and historian Nick Rossi. And in 2025 she debuted “Stella Swings Ella,” which incorporates historical information and stories about Fitzgerald’s life interspersed with the music.
Scaling up The Billie Holiday Project post-pandemic, she and Fontano expanded the arrangements for a 10-piece ensemble, joined on stage by professional swing dancers at larger venues. She’s continued to extend her creative reach, developing a show in 2022 on Nat “King” Cole and the Nat “King” Cole Trio with the jazz guitarist and historian Nick Rossi. And in 2025 she debuted “Stella Swings Ella,” which incorporates historical information and stories about Fitzgerald’s life interspersed with the music.
“I discovered through creating The Billie Holiday Project that I love the historical research and crafting the arc of the show,” she says. “It adds so much to know some of the history of these legendary artists and songs.”
With the release of For Billie, Heath is stepping onto an international stage, ensuring that Holiday’s legacy burns brightly in the 21st century.
-Written By Andrew Gilbert