Interview: Mesmerizing AAPI Composer Stephanie Chou Is Back at Joe's Pub

Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with acclaimed composer, saxophonist and singer Stephanie Chou at Joe's Pub on May 1. "A seamless blend of styles...creative and mesmerizing throughout, as it traverses sounds both old and new....Chou’s performance never wavers, and is a delight throughout.” (Broadway World). Chou blends influences from her Chinese heritage with Western jazz and pop to create a bracingly original sound. The show will celebrate the release of her newest recording Dragon, a composition for erhu and string trio commissioned and performed by the NYC-based multicultural chamber ensemble INTERWOVEN, as well as the New York premiere of TamáleDumpling, a festive food piece celebrating multiple cultures featuring vocalist Lito Villareal.

We spoke with Chou about the upcoming show and her other projects, including the upcoming release of her song cycle Comfort Girl.

How do you feel about returning to Joe׳s Pub?

I'm so excited to be back at Joe's Pub!  We've been playing there regularly since around 2017, and it always feels like home. It's also a great place for me to try out new material and have guests, which we can't always do on the road. Joe's Pub is one of my favorite places to play in town and we are thrilled to be back!

What are you most looking forward to about this show?

We haven't played in NYC in about six months, so it will be a great chance to reconnect with our home base audience. I'm most looking forward to trying out some new things on this show - we've got some new configurations (performing some of my "classics" with additional strings), we're cooking up some new pieces (TamaleDumpling), and we'll present Dragon and my new collaboration with INTERWOVEN to new audiences. We can't wait to have some fun on May 1!

What was the process of recording Dragon like?

Recording is my favorite part of the music-making process because you get to go into the studio and try to create the "defining performance" of a piece that lasts. We recorded Dragon at Sear Sound in Manhattan last December, in a beautiful spacious room with great acoustics.  The musicians played the piece so well and we all had a really fun day. The ensemble played the piece together, live as a unit, the entire time. What you're hearing on the recording is all live, no overdubbing, and very minimal editing. We sought to capture an organic sound and feeling - the mix was done on a large format console, and the master was done on tape. I'm so grateful to INTERWOVEN for bringing the piece to life and playing it so beautifully, and to everyone who works on the recording. For me, studio recording in general is like the "complete realization" of a composition. [You can listen to the recording here]

Aside from this show and your new album, what have you been working on lately?

We just performed my song cycle Comfort Girl in Castleton, VT on Tuesday, April 22, and we have a few shows coming up [in Yonkers, Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Seattle, and Vashion Island in Washington state].

I've also been writing a new set of songs that are more songwriting based, more rocking out, for a new album with electric instruments. The project will still feature my signature blend of Chinese influences with jazz, but incorporate more 1960’s-80’s progressive rock and pop. I'm working on this with my longtime collaborator, engineer/mixer/producer Roy Hendrickson, and we can't wait to get these new songs recorded and into your ears! (This album won't be out for a few years probably).

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

The Comfort Girl album will be released later this year or in early 2026; stay tuned! We're currently working on a release plan for that and I'm very excited to get that out into the world - we've been working on that for many years.

You can check out more of Stephanie Chou’s work on her website at www.stephaniechoumusic.com

Buy tickets to her May 1 show at Joe’s Pub in NYC on their website here.

In addition to that show, you can catch her upcoming tour dates:

Friday May 2 - Yonkers, NY - Hudson River Museum
Thursday May 8 - Pittsburgh, PA - Jazz Poetry Festival, City of Asylum
Saturday May 10 - Edmonton, AB - Yardbird Suite
Thursday May 15 - Seattle, WA - Royal Room
Friday May 16 - Vashon Island, WA - Vashon Center for the Arts