Stacey Kent

A New Jersey native who began her professional career on the London jazz scene and an artist Billboard calls “thoroughly captivating,” vocalist Stacey Kent makes her first appearance on the Miner Auditorium stage for her first SFJAZZ performance in two decades. 

Making her recording debut for the Candid label with 1997’s Close Your Eyes, Kent established a global profile as among the finest song stylists of her generation, applying her crystalline voice and powerful interpretive skills to an ever-expanding songbook of standards, French chansons, and Brazilian classics. 

Over her 13 albums for the Candid, Blue Note, Sony, and Naïve labels, her rich repertoire has grown to include originals penned by her husband and musical partner Jim Tomlinson with lyrics by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.  

2008’s Breakfast on the Morning Tram received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Vocal Jazz Album, and over her momentous career, Kent has accumulated an impressive collection of awards including a 2009 l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government and the Ella Fitzgerald Prize at the 2023 Montreal Jazz Festival.  

Her most recent Naïve release, Summer Me, Winter Me, is a collection of standards inspired by audiences who have asked why certain songs that find their way into her live sets haven't been represented on her albums.