Toronto’s Noah Kosta Brings Classic Jazz Pop Into a New Generation With Debut Album, Right Here
At just 22, Noah Kosta has already spent seven years building the kind of stage command that usually takes decades to earn, and his debut album, Right Here, out now, marks the arrival of a jazz pop vocalist with the tone, phrasing, and instincts to carry that tradition forward. Raised on the classic sound of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack in his grandfather’s home, Kosta channels that Big Band lineage through a voice that is entirely his own, drawing inevitable comparisons to fellow Canadian vocalists Michael Bublé and Matt Dusk for a new generation of listeners discovering that sound for the first time.
Right Here was recorded at Mark Camilleri’s Imagine Sound Studios in Toronto, with arrangements by Charles T. Cozens that Kosta credits with pushing the songs to another level entirely. The seven track collection blends three original compositions co-written with longtime family friend Aaron Dean alongside four carefully chosen covers, and Kosta has assembled four separate ensembles, a big band, quintet, quartet, and trio, to bring the material to audiences across formats.
“I want to respectfully bring what the legends of the past created into the present,” Kosta says of the project, “and I think, and I hope, that we’ve succeeded.”
The album’s title track and Kosta’s favourite song on the record began as an unreleased collaboration with Dean back in 2021, revived when Cozens’s new arrangement convinced him the moment had finally arrived. “Pull me closer, let’s put love into practice, don’t get emotional yet, and wonder what we have right here,” Kosta sings on the track, a lyric that captures the same warm, direct intimacy that defines his stage presence. “Someone Else,” the first song he ever recorded with Dean at seventeen, remains just as personal, with Kosta noting it captures exactly how he felt navigating high school and early heartbreak, singing “should’ve seen it comin’ from the start, told myself it’s over, that there’s no place left to fall down.”
Kosta’s rise has been shaped by an unusually accomplished list of mentors and collaborators for an artist his age. At seventeen, he won the Grand Prize at the LIVECITY Music Awards, and at eighteen, he won the Long & McQuade Singing Contest with John Santos, earning the chance to record eight songs with producer Anthony Wright, whose credits include Bryan Adams, Christina Aguilera, B.o.B, Jadakiss, and Flo Rida. Before turning twenty, he had trained with vocal coaches Elaine Overholt, whose past students include John Travolta, Zac Efron, and Shawn Mendes, and Stanislas Vitort, a finalist on The Voice in Russia, while also working alongside respected artists Alma Deutscher and Bill King. More recently, Kosta has been closely mentored and managed by music industry veteran Laura van Leest, CEO of Bellefair Artists, who brought several key pieces of Right Here to his attention, including its arrangement direction and repertoire choices.
That combination of instinct and mentorship has already carried Kosta to some of Toronto’s most recognizable stages, including Koerner Hall, Casino Rama, Mel Lastman’s Square, and the International Beaches Jazz Festival, performing both with his own band, The Experience, and with The Metro Big Band. A recent appearance on Canada’s Got Talent further introduced his voice to national audiences, building momentum ahead of the ‘Right Here’ release.
What separates Kosta from a simple nostalgia act is the specificity he brings to his song selection and phrasing, treating each cover as a piece of his own story rather than a museum piece. His take on “Way Back When” reshapes an earlier synth leaning demo into what Kosta describes as a wistful, last song at the prom feeling, while his rendition of a ballad chosen specifically for the album’s closing moment was recorded with just Cozens on piano, a deliberately intimate counterpoint to the record’s fuller arrangements. It is that instinct, choosing restraint exactly when a lesser vocalist might reach for spectacle, that makes the Bublé and Dusk comparisons feel earned rather than assigned.
With Right Here now arriving and four live configurations ready to tour the material, Noah Kosta is positioned as one of the most credible young voices in Canadian jazz pop, an artist building his sound the old-fashioned way: through mentorship, repetition, and an unmistakable respect for the songbook he is now adding to.
Hi, Noah! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
It’s great to meet you too! I’m a 22-year-old jazz/pop singer from Toronto, and I’ve loved music for as long as I can remember. For the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of performing songs from the Great American Songbook. Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to perform some incredible places, including Koerner Hall for Glenn Gould’s 95th birthday celebration alongside Alma Deutscher in 2022, Casino Rama in 2023, appearing on Canada’s Got Talent in 2024, and performing with my big band at the Beaches International Jazz Festival for the past seven years. Growing up, I studied voice and learned to play the piano and saxophone. During my time at the University of Toronto, I also had the opportunity to learn the trumpet, clarinet, and bass Some of my biggest musical inspirations are Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Ella Fitzgerald. I’m also inspired by artists like Jacob Collier, Michael Bublé, Sam Smith, and Harry Connick Jr., who have each influenced the way I think about music and performance in their own unique way.
Most 22-year-olds grew up on streaming playlists. You grew up on Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack. What was it about that music that made you feel, “This is where I belong”?
It’s the music that truly made me feel at home. While I appreciate and love every genre of music, this kind of music is the one that means the most to me. My grandfather and I were kindred spirits, and gelled in every way. I loved listening to his stories, his music, and loved his mindset. With everything he went through in his life, it influenced me in ways that shaped who I am today, inside and outside of the music realm. When he started showing me the songs that meant a lot to him while he was growing up, It opened my eyes to a whole new world of music. To be able to carry on what he has shown me will forever mean the world. It’s what jumpstarted my love for singing, and my career from then on.
You could have chased almost any genre, but instead you chose one that asks listeners to slow down, really listen, and feel every phrase. Do you think that’s exactly what people are missing today?
People will always listen and feel what they connect to the most. I think modern music, especially from great songwriters like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, does a great job at making the listeners feel every phrase and giving them a chance to actually listen. Every form of music will mean something to someone, whether it’s modern pop, jazz, rock, rap, etc. For myself, my mission statement is to bring an element of what made me open my eyes and ears, and bring it to the world today. To answer your question, no. I don’t believe that aspect of music has ever left. It has only evolved alongside the music its attached to.
You perform with everything from a trio to a full big band. How does your relationship with a song change depending on who’s on stage with you?
It’s not the relationship with a song that changes, it’s more the meaning, and intensity behind it. With this album, we were able to record with varied instrumentation, like a traditional big band on “Right Here”, “Twentysomething”, and “That’s Life”, moving then to a more intimate combo + strings instrumentation on “Someone Else” and “Right Here”, to a large, orchestral arrangement of “Angel Eyes”, to finally, possibly the most intimate setting you can have, a man and a piano on “Smile”. All these songs are equally incredible in my eyes, but the intensity is so different throughout every song, and each one has a different energy to it.
Seven years into your career, this is your debut album. After spending so much time preparing for this moment, what do you hope people discover about you that they couldn’t have learned from seeing you live?
I hope people discover who I am beyond the stage. I believe there’s good in people, even during challenging times. But you won’t see it if you’re not open to it. I see so much beauty in the world, in nature, in animals, in different cultures, and in the people I meet along the way. I believe our mistakes aren’t failures; they’re learning moments, that give us the opportunity to grow and become better versions of ourselves. I have a deep appreciation for the older generations. I love listening to their stories because every conversation feels like preserving a piece of history. Their experiences have taught me lessons no textbook ever could. When I’m not performing, you’ll probably find me building an elaborate LEGO set, spending time with my dog, or enjoying a slice of pizza! I am not picky 😉
Music wise, I hope they discover my openness to new music, and innovation. Recording three original songs on this album, while in a more adult contemporary setting, is something that I will always cherish, and getting the chance to express myself for one of the first times through music will always mean the world to me. I hope to continue showing my voice, and my ideas through music, and while this is very new for me, I am very happy with how they turned out.