"Your generation's Billy Joel"
Geoff Wilbur's Music Blog
When Alissa Musto was four years old, she used to sit by the door with a garage sale guitar and beg her father, a professional "piano man" to take her to work with him. He promised that if she learned to play the piano, she'd someday be able to. Less than a year later, Alissa, won her first piano competition performing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, assisted by a wooden block that allowed her to reach the sustain pedals. Alissa quickly grabbed the attention of local talent shows, NBC's Spotlight on the Student Artist series and at age 9, performed on the national television series, "America's Most Talented Kid".
Growing up in Massachusetts, Alissa juggled a rigorous academic schedule with her musical aspirations--using lunch breaks to practice, performing in local venues on the weekends and racking up local and national honors including “Piano Act of the Year" in the nationally-airing Wonderworld TV Golden Ribby Awards, top three in the 19 & under Music On & Up Showcase grand finale, 1st place in the Rhode Island's Got Talent and New England Performs talent competitions and top 10 in KidzStar USA, a talent search attracting 45,000+.
As part of the "Find Your Voice" competition, Music & Arts, the largest retail chain of band and orchestra instruments, chose Alissa and four other young artists nationwide to sponsor with new musical equipment and scholarships. Dubbed a "Rising Star of Jazz" by FirstWorks, Alissa opened for trumpet legend, Wynton Marsalis at the Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, with her high school jazz quartet and signed on to the SuperCuts Rock the Cut national campaign for upcoming artists. Passionate about environmental issues, Alissa became a spokesperson for Project GreenSchools and promoted environmental causes throughout New England, performing at schools, fairs and even the Massachusetts State House where she was honored with a citation from the House of Representatives.
On January 5th, 2015, Alissa released her debut album, "What We Saw From the Piano Bar”—the same day her biggest inspiration, Bruce Springsteen, released his debut album in 1973. Immediately following the release, her single “Black Flak” beat out dozens of local artists in the MusicToVideo contest and has been featured on radio shows and blogs nationally. One of six participants from over 4,300 submissions, Alissa was also selected for the House of Blues Bringing Down the House Class of 2015 and chosen as as the winner of the Justine Magazine Talent Search and Needham Music Awards. After successfully completing the program, she was invited to serve on the Music Forward Foundation Alumni Advisory Board and contribute to the Foundation's compilation album.
One month after her 21st birthday and graduation from Harvard University, Alissa was crowned Miss Massachusetts and competed in the 2017 Miss America pageant, placing as a top 15 finalist. During her year of service, Alissa continued the music education efforts she implemented as Miss Tri-County 2015, Miss Cambridge 2016, working alongside numerous arts-related organizations including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Girls Rock!, Harvard Reading Buddies, CityArts and Headstart, where she founded and led in-class music classes. Her efforts have been recognized by the Harvard Legal Entrepreneurship Project, the Club Passim Iguana Music Fund grant, the Miss America Community Service award, the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Governor's Office.
Funded by the scholarship money she won through the Miss America Organization and additional merit scholarships, Alissa earned her Master's degree in Music Business and Entertainment Industries from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, the nation's top music business school, according to Billboard. Her academic work has been published several times in the Berklee Music Business Journal.
As a performer for Billboard Onboard, the award-winning pop piano show aboard Holland America’s luxury cruise ships, and a resident guest entertainer for Princess and Norwegian Cruiselines. Alissa has dazzled audiences while sailing through over 50 countries. When the Covid-19 pandemic brought cruising to a halt in March 2020, Alissa disembarked and returned home where she wrote, recorded and released her single, "How Still". When the song was released on May 1st, also known as "May Day", there were still 100,000 crew members stuck onboard. Determined to shed light on the issue, "How Still" spotlighted the struggles of the industry and uncertainty facing crew members at home and at sea. The music video featured short videos and selfies submitted by seafarers across cruise lines, nationalities and backgrounds, expressing the messages they wanted the world to know. The song quickly hit 20,000 views on Facebook and Alissa's story was featured in Conde Nast Traveler, GEN (a Medium publication), The Washington Post, the cover page of The Herald News, NBC Boston, Good Morning America and ABC's national lifestyle network, Localish.
Alissa has graced stages around the world, exceeding 2,000 professional performances in her career, including the House of Blues (Boston), the Hard Rock Cafe (Boston), Foxwoods Resort & Casino, the Rhode Island Convention Center, the Wang Theatre (Boston), the Peabody Essex Museum's "Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed, and Style" exhibit, Tropicana Field (home of the MLB Tampa Bay Rays), the Hilton Tournament of Champions, opening for country singer, Maren Morris and top piano piano around the US, Europe and the Carribean. She has maintained long-term piano bar residencies at Point Street Dueling Pianos (Providence, RI), Jacob Wirth (Boston, MA) and Mastro's Ocean Club (Boston, MA). She has been honored as a Boston Office of Arts and Culture grant recipient and finalist in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, Limelight Music Awards, New England Music Awards and Liverpool International Song Contest. Her 2017 acoustic EP, “X Post Facto” has been been described as “hauntingly beautiful”, “captivating”, “poignant, authentic” and “the millennial ballad of the century”, while she has been critically praised as a “jazzy-folk songwriting genius”, one of the "hottest up-and-coming musicians" and “your generation’s Billy Joel". Alissa has been featured in publications like Insider, Forbes, Reader's Digest and Refinery29 and has appeared on NBC, ABC and FOX affiliates and as a guest DJ on Sirius XM Radio. She is sponsored by Lanikai Ukuleles.
endorsed by
During the pandemic, Alissa traveled cross country in a camper van, lived on a sailboat and competed in the historic Miss World America virtual pageant--a preliminary to the oldest-running international pageant, winning the Beauty With A Purpose and Talent challenges and ultimately placing in the top 5. She spent one season as an entertainer on the NHL Bolts Blue Crew, cheering on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.
In addition to being a musician and performer, Alissa works as a signed model and actress and has appeared in over 40 commercials and videos for clients like Delta, Jerome Alexander Cosmetics, Healthcare.Gov, Marriott International, US Border Control and Customs and TikTok Live. She has worked on sets with MTV, Home Shopping Network, Access Hollywood, Netflix, AppleTV, Showtime, AMC and Dick Clark Productions. In 2022, she was one of the winners on Season 1 of USA Network's "Snake in the Grass", filmed in Costa Rica as well as a reoccurring contestant on Season 1 of "We Are Family" on FOX. In 2023, Alissa was named a "30 under 30" by the University of Miami.