• Sunday, Feb 26, 2023 / 2:00pm

One of the most moving tributes that has ever come to the El Campanil stage returns this February! The stunningly talented Stella Heath presents "The Billie Holiday Project" - an intimate and introspective salute to the one and only Lady Day. This is an afternoon of music that you'll remember for a long time-don't miss it! Singing since the age of eight, Stella feels wholly blessed to be able to express herself through music and song, and to carry forth the torch of Jazz Music from greats such as Billie Holiday. She grew up in the North San Francisco Bay Area, steeped in her mother’s eclectic music collection; some of her early musical influences were Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Buena Vista Social Club, Billie Holiday, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan and Ella Fitzgerald. Her education was primarily in Acting at Interlochen Arts Academy and Syracuse University, where she received a degree in classical acting and cultural geography. She spent many years as a Shakespearean actress based out of New York City, where she began to sing Jazz again with the incredible Marjorie Eliot in Harlem. She moved to her home state of California in 2014, and began playing music full time, starting the Bay Area based band French Oak, a wild around the edges band that mixes French Jazz Manouche, New Orleans Hot Swing, and Eclectic Global Folk, allowing Stella to explore and play in vocal improvisation, different languages, and song interpretation. She has a deep love for Jazz and its history; she believes it should be an integral part of American childhood curriculum.