He has collaborated with a diverse roster of artists including Avril Lavigne and Andrea Bocelli as a songwriter, musician and producer.
Early life
Stephan Moccio was born to an Italian-Canadian[4] father and a French-Canadian mother. Moccio is fluent in English and French. Growing up in Niagara Falls, Moccio began his piano studies at the age of 3. His musical style and vocabulary are influenced by the musical genres of classical, jazz, pop, hip hop, blues, and dance.
Career
Moccio enrolled at the University of Western Ontario where he studied performance and classical piano studies under instructors John Paul Bracey and Jack Behrens. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in composition and piano performance in 1994, he was accepted into Berklee College of Music. However, he chose to focus on developing his professional career and instead signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. During the early years of his tenure at Sony/ATV, Moccio worked as a session musician, in-house producer, arranger and composer, attending rehearsals of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and playing in Toronto jazz clubs and hotel lounges, notably the Four Seasons Hotel's La Serre.
Throughout his nearly 9-year tenure at Sony/ATV, Moccio wrote for several award-winning Canadian and international artists, most notably Celine Dion, Sarah Brightman, and Josh Groban. Moccio spent many months in writing sessions in Nashville, Los Angeles, and New York during these years, which culminated in a lengthy catalogue of songs as musician, songwriter, producer and composer.
In 2001, Moccio began work on a melody that would become the chart-topping single "A New Day Has Come" recorded by Celine Dion, released on her album (in both a radio mix version and 3/4 time ballad album version), of the same name in February 2002. The song broke records at the time by maintaining the #1 position on the U.S. Hot Adult Contemporary charts for 21 weeks. The single would make it onto numerous compilation CDs and DVDs in North America. In 2003, Celine Dion titled her live residency Las Vegas show A New Day....
In 2003, Moccio left Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada to work predominantly under his own publishing company, Sing Little Penguin. He soon moved into his state-of-the-art recording studio in downtown Toronto, where he continued to write, record, produce for both his solo projects and various collaborations with recording artists.
In 2012, Moccio was one of the judges of the Canadian reality show, Canada's Got Talent. The show was later cancelled after one season but was revived in 2022.
In August 2013, Moccio moved to Los Angeles and currently works out of his record studio in Santa Monica.
In June 2019, Moccio was honoured by the University of Western Ontario with a Doctor of Music, honoris causa (DMus) degree.
In November 2019, Moccio signed a worldwide record deal with Decca Records.
Moccio is a Yamaha Artist[7] and performs exclusively on Yamaha Pianos.
#1 SOCAN Award,[10] BMI Pop Award,[11] SOCAN Classic Song Award,[12] Juno nomination for Single of the Year (2003), Million-air award (over 1,000,000 BDS spins on US radio) • produced by Walter Afanasieff • album 7 weeks at #1 in Canada (6× Platinum - CRIA[13]), #1 US (3xPlatinum - RIAA), #1 Europe (3xPlatinum - IFPI) • 5th best-selling album of 2002 • Vegas show A New Day...
#1 (4 weeks) Canadian Billboard Hot 100 and certified 4× Platinum (CRIA), nomination - Best AC Song (Canadian Radio Music Awards) • album certified gold (CRIA)
Also recorded in French for the Canadian release "Tout Ce Que Je Sais" • album certified Gold (CRIA), reaching #29 US Billboard Top 200 and #7 Canada album charts; #1 Classical US Billboard album chart • #5 best-selling crossover album of 2003 (Billboard)
