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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.
