Crash Course in Solfege: Major Edition

Brenda Earle Stokes is a pianist, vocalist, composer and educator based in New York City. An in-demand performer, Stokes is also the owner and creator of Piano Skills for Singers – a series of online piano courses with over 200 students worldwide. A classically trained pianist, Stokes completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in jazz piano at York University in Toronto and her Master’s degree in jazz piano at Manhattan School of Music. She has performed with as a side person with John Riley, Dick Oatts, Joel Frahm, Roxy Coss, Wycliffe Gordon, Maurice Hines and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.

Stokes has held residences at the Kennedy Center and Banff Center for Fine Arts, was a finalist of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition and was a winner of the IAJE Sister’s in Jazz competition, identifying her as one of the top emerging jazz artists of her generation. As a bandleader she has toured clubs and festivals across the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and has released 6 albums own her own label. Her most recent album Solo Sessions Volume 1, is her first solo offering “shimmers with energetic scatting and cheery piano shimmers with energetic scatting and cheery piano.” (Downbeat Magazine).

As a private instructor, Brenda is in high demand teaching piano and voice, and working as a performance and songwriting coach. Brenda serves on the faculty of Fordham University, teaching voice, piano and musicianship. In 2018, Brenda presented a four-day teacher training seminar at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba Australia, teaching an immersive course in jazz, pop and rock singing to professional singers and voice teachers from all over the continent. She has co-taught master teacher Jeanie LoVetri’s course Somatic Voicework - The LoVetri Method in the US and Australia and has taught workshops at high schools and colleges across the US, Canada and New Zealand.

Brenda serves as Vocal Jazz Coordinator of the National Jazz Festival, gave the keynote speech in Vocal Jazz at the New Jersey Association of Jazz Festivals and has adjudicated at instrumental, choral and vocal music festivals in both the US and Canada. Her online piano courses Piano Skills for Singers have more than 200 students worldwide and she has written articles for Canadian Musician magazine, as well as her popular blog atwww.pianoskillsforsingers.com.