Stephen Devassy (born 23 February 1981) is an Indian musician hailing from

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. He started his career at a very early age, and has performed on stage around the world. Stephen is the founder of Musik Lounge, an audio technology school and studio in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Early life

Stephen did his schooling at Seventh Day Adventist school, Ottapalam. He went on to

NSS College, Ottapalam N.S.S College, Ottapalam is an institute of higher education in Ottapalam, India. The college was founded in 1961. It was funded by donations and was consecrated by Swami Vishadanandha, President of Sree Ramakrishna Ashram, Palappuram, and wa ...

for pursuing his Pre-Degree .And Stephen married Jesna Joy on 16 November 2010.They have a son Shawn born in 2015.

Career

Devassy's first major break came when he was aged 18, through Johny Sagarika, for whom he did the music orchestration of six songs on the album ''Ishtamannu''. He then went as an accompanying artist to play the keyboard for Hariharan on his European tour. He has also accompanied the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

maestro L. Subramanian at the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival. At age 19, he started a music band called Seven, with singer

Franco Simon Franco Simon (born 7 October 1974) is an Indian singer and music composer from Kerala. He has sung around 150 Malayalam films songs and 1500 album songs in 5 different languages. He is the nephew of well-known Indian film composer Ouseppachan ...

and guitarist Sangeeth Pavithran. A

Indian pop Indian pop music, also known as Indi-pop, refers to pop music produced in India that is independent from filmi soundtracks for Indian cinema, such as the music of Bollywood, which tends to be more popular. Indian pop is closely linked to Bolly ...

band, they released an album titled ''YehZindagani'' Stephen, who started performing at a young age, has done the music arrangement for many films. Some of the films he scored were ''

Majaa ''Majaa'' is a 2005 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by Shafi, starring Vikram, Asin, Pasupathy, Vadivelu, Anu Prabhakar, Vijayakumar, Manivannan, Murali and Biju Menon (in his Tamil debut). The music was composed by Vidyasagar. It ...

'', '' Thambi'', ''

Nammal ''Nammal'' () is a 2002 Indian Malayalam-language romantic comedy-drama film directed by Kamal and written by Kalavoor Ravikumar. The film features Jishnu, Sidharth Bharathan in the lead roles. It was the debut film of Sidharth, Renuka, and ...

'', '' Azhagiya Thamizh Magan'' and Hariharan's album, ''Waqt Par Bolna''. '' Hariharan Pillai Happy Aanu'' (2003) was his debut music directorial venture in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

. Lyrics were written by famous young lyricst

Rajeev Alunkal Rajeev Alunkal is a prominent poet, lyricist, music director and malayalam orator. He is best known for writing lyrics on romantic and philosophical themes. He has written numerous poems and songs. He is the former Chairman of Kumaranashan Smar ...

. The film "KQ" (2013) by Baiju Johnson, a story of two hard working friends also had a touch of Stephen's music. Survival thriller of Superstar Mohanlal's "

Neerali ''Neerali'' (Theatrical title: ''Nieraali''; ) is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language survival thriller film directed and co-edited by Ajoy Varma from a screenplay by Saju Thomas, with Mohanlal in the lead role. The film was produced and distribute ...

" (2018) directed and co-edited by Ajoy Varma is another milestone in his music career . Stephen Devassy on stage BNC

He is one of the regular band members in

Rexband Rexband is the first Catholic Band (music), band from the Indian subcontinent to be invited to the World Youth Day performance in World Youth Day 2002, 2002 at Toronto. From then, they have been consistently invited for the later World Youth days in ...

, a Christian contemporary band singing gospel fusion, a musical outreach of the

Jesus Youth Jesus Youth (JY) is an International Catholic Movement, approved by the Holy See. The Movement evolved as an outcome of the Charismatic revival that spread across India in the mid-1970s. JY had its beginnings in Kerala, India, and evolved as an ...

Movement. He performed with the band before

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

during

World Youth Day World Youth Day (WYD) is an event for young people organized by the Catholic Church that was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985, sometimes nicknamed in later years as the "Catholic Woodstock". Its concept has been influenced by the Light-L ...

performance in 2002 at Canada. At the time, it was the only catholic band invited from India. Stephen has orchestrated an instrumental version of the popular

melodies called ''Different Vibes''. In association wit
Kosmic Music
Stephen has also set to tune to a background of Western music,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

slokas, mantras and verses from the Upanishads, called ''Sacred Chants of Kosmic Music,'' and albums of holy chants on Ganesha, Shiva and Vishnu. He has also assisted

Sarod The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...

maestro

Amjad Ali Khan Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (born 9 October 1945) is an Indian classical ''sarod'' player, best known for his clear and fast ekhara taans. Khan was born into a classical musical family and has performed internationally since the 1960s. He was awar ...

with his album of Christmas carols, ''Breaking Barriers''.. He has released his album ''Romanza'', which was a mix of world music sprinkled with the flavor of piano. Indian ragas have been treated with the rich use of contemporary piano. Hariharan,

Ouseppachan Mechery Louis Ouseppachan (born 13 September 1955), known mononymously as Ouseppachan, is an Indian film composer and singer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He is a recipient of National Film Award, Filmfare Award and Kerala State ...

and a Russian vocalist appeared as guest artists on the album. Stephen Devassy BNC

Stephen's solo stage shows have propelled him to the top league of onstage performers. Stephen did the role of an ideal judge in Amrita TV show Superstar Junior (2016), Top Singer (2018-2019) of Flowers channel and currently he is in the panel of most famous music contest Star singer of Asianet. He got several other opportunities like being guest in many other TV shows. Super Singer Season 1 (2008), Super Singer season 2 (2021) of Vijay TV, Indian voice season 1 (2012) of Mazhavil manorama are few of them. He was also been guest in many Hindi television shows like The Voice India kids Season 2 (2017) of AND TV, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs (2017) of Zee TV and in the most famous Sony TV show Indian Idol season 12 (2020-2021).

Achievements

Stephen Devassy got certificate of participation in 2019 from Guinness World Records for working on the music of the longest documentary film "100 years of Chrysostom" which enters in Guinness World Records. The documentary was directed by Blessy. Rotary club of Cochin Excellence Award – 2008 AMMA Award – Artist of The Year – 2009 Asia Vision Award – 2012 Featured on cover of AUDIBY, (Music and tech magazine) – Nov -Dec 2012 Brands Academy Award For Stephen Devassy's – Muzik Lounge School of Audio Technology – 2013 Featured on 5Talents Magazine Cover Page With His Life Story – 2013 Cosine Award – 2013 Times of India – Brand Icon – 2015 Swaralaya Award – 2016 Music Icon of The Year – Vijay TV – 2018 Best Live Music Performance in India – Indywood Music Excellence Awards – 2018 Guinness World Records – Certificate of Participation – 2019 The Icon of Inspiration Music – Behindwoods Gold Mic Award – 2019 * *

Discography

Television

References

External links

* * * *
Stephen Devassy at MSI
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Devassy, Stephen Living people Indian pianists Malayalam film score composers Musicians from Palakkad Composers for piano Keytarists 1981 births People from Ottapalam 21st-century Indian musicians 21st-century pianists