Ben Cassara

Born and raised in NYC, Ben Cassara began singing around the family piano and went on to perform in both church and high school choirs which culminated in a televised performance at Carnegie Hall at the age of 16.

He tried his hand at theater and after college performed in a number of Off-Off Broadway productions including the one of the lead roles in the John Glines production of the musical "Gulp." However, music was his first love and it didn’t take him long to start working in piano bars all around the city and in the tri-state area.

After a time, Cassara realized he’d prefer to be a “front man” and a while back started studying with jazz vocal coach, Carol Fredette, and working with different jazz accompanists around the city.

In 2013 Cassara released his first CD, “Sister Moon” on Chandler Records with Tedd Firth on piano, David Finck on bass and Bob Mallach on tenor, to great reviews.

In 2014 he debuted his Bobby Troup Project at Jazz at Kitano and has since performed it at numerous venues in the New York, New Jersey tristate areas. He regularly performs at Jazz at Kitano, 55 Bar and Pangea, both in NYC, and Shanghai Jazz and Trumpets in NJ. Ben has also performed at the Mid Day Jazz Series at St. Peters Church, the Metropolitan Room, Something Jazz, Joe’s Pub, The Pax Theater and for Project 142 and Soapbox Gallery.

For the last year, Ben has been curating the Wednesday Night Jazz Series at Pangea in the East Village.

He is currently working on a new CD which is scheduled to be released in early Spring of 2023.