STEPHAN MOCCIO RELEASES NEW SINGLE “DEAR BURT,” AN ODE TO FAMED COMPOSER BURT BACHARACH
NEW ALBUM SCENES FROM A VELVET ROOM OUT JUNE 26
LISTEN TO “DEAR BURT” HERE
08 MAY 2026 (TORONTO, ON) — Today, the lauded and multifaceted pianist, songwriter, and composer Stephan Moccio releases “Dear Burt,” a wistful ode to the late composer and songwriter Burt Bacharach. With a career that spanned Top 40 hits and the discovery of then-backup singer Dionne Warwick in 1961, Bacharach’s path mirrors Moccio in many ways: falling in love with jazz first, and pop later. With contemplative notes and bright piano, “Dear Burt” is the second single from Moccio’s forthcoming studio album, Scenes From A Velvet Room, releasing on June 26 on Decca Records. Listen to “Dear Burt” and pre-order the album HERE.
Last month, the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist celebrated the announcement of his new album with his first single, “Positano,” available to listen here. The album was born after a period of introspection and reflection for Moccio. After a quarter-century spent penning iconic melodies, Moccio could easily rest on a catalog of chart-breakers like Celine Dion’s “A New Day Has Come,” Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball,” the Weeknd’s “Earned It,” and “I Believe,” the theme song for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Instead, he’s looking back to the turn of the millennium, when, in a liminal space between his precocious adolescence and his blockbuster songwriting career, he took a gig playing piano six nights a week in the lobby of the Four Seasons Toronto.
The Four Seasons gig was a coveted one, but Moccio sees it less as a career stepping stone than a series of essential learning experiences: how to read a room and cater to a crowd, how to subconsciously curate a vibe, how to slip into a space seamlessly and slide out gracefully. An artist can control the atmosphere of a space just as effectively from its outskirts as its center, he found. “I was the guy who was always behind the scenes,” he says, smiling at how far he’s come.
Scenes From a Velvet Room begins exactly as Moccio’s sets did: with the melancholic strokes of virtuosic fingers first touching keys. In the late fall and early spring, his playing often coincided with the sunset, which imbued the atrium with soft, amber light. Conjured immaculately, this image persists for the entirety of Scenes’ opening track, “Beneath the Amber Hour.”
“I couldn't be brazen to start,” he says. “I had to enter with a very quiet tone. I had to noodle and play these little jazz licks and get under everyone's skin. And then they'd realize there was a pianist in the room, and all of a sudden I'd have people come up to me and say, ‘Can you play this song? Can you play that song?’"
Three songs on the album feature New Orleans legend Branford Marsalis. Switching between soprano and tenor sax, he plays snatches of a melody that reaches its ultimate form on the album’s final track, “I Break Everything I Love,” when Moccio finally plays it on piano. The song recalls the way Moccio would end his Four Seasons sets with crushing ballads like “My Funny Valentine”—soft enough to avoid intruding on conversations but with the emotional weight to bring the house down for those paying attention. In his early 20s, Moccio achieved this atmosphere by translating the work of past masters. However, the older, wiser Moccio is telling his own story now. It’s effortlessly catchy, but also wistful and tender, a creative reimagining of memories both treasured and painful.
Since the arrival of his debut album Tales of Solace, recorded and released during deep COVID, Moccio has become hugely popular with Gen Z. “Fracture,” the standout hit from that record, has been streamed on Spotify more than 143 million times. Multiple tracks from each of his other major releases—2021’s defiantly personal Lionheart and 2024’s gorgeously introspective Legends, Myths, and Lavender—have also racked up tens of millions of plays on the platform, with many millions more impressions on TikTok.
Pre-order Scenes From A Velvet Room, HERE available June 26 on all platforms on Decca Records.
TRACKLIST FOR SCENES FROM A VELVET ROOM
1. Beneath The Amber Hour
2. Room 3A
3. Melt
4. Pink Lady
5. Positano
6. Like An Old Photograph (ft. Branford Marsalis)
7. Dear Burt
8. Bossa Noir
9. The Beautiful Undoing (ft. Branford Marsalis)
10. Where The River Heals
11. Opaline (ft. Branford Marsalis)
12. I Break Everything I Love
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