Sun Sep 7
Livestream - Luciana Souza Trio w/ Chico Pinheiro and Rogerio Boccato
5:30PM / Free | Fees Get Tickets
Luciana Souza
Grammy winner Luciana Souza is one of Jazz’s leading singers and interpreters. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Ms. Souza’s work transcends traditional boundaries around musical styles. Ms. Souza has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock on his Grammy winning Album of the Year, River -The Joni Letters, and with Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez, Guillermo Klein, John Patitucci, Miguel Zenón, Donny McCaslin, The Yellowjackets, and many others.
Ms. Souza has been a prominent soloist on important new works by composers Osvaldo Golijov, Derek Bermel, Patrick Zimmerli, and Caroline Shaw, performing with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and A Far Cry. In August of 2024, Luciana Souza delivered a powerful performance of Golijov’s La Pasion Segun San Marcos, marking the triumphant opening of the Edinburgh Festival.
Ms. Souza has been releasing celebrated recordings since 2002 - including her six Grammy nominated records Brazilian Duos, North and South, Duos II, Tide, Duos III, and The Book of Chet. Her critically acclaimed ninth recording for the Sunnyside label, The Book of Longing, presented her settings of poems by Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Christina Rossetti. Storytellers was
Ms. Souza’s 2020 release recording, a collaboration with arranger Vince Mendoza and the WDR Big Band Cologne honoring Brazilian storytellers in music. Ms. Souza’s 2023 release, Cometa, with the Brazilian Jazz Ensemble Trio Corrente, featured Brazil’s top Jazz piano trio and Luciana Souza celebrating samba composers such as Dorival Caymmi and Paulinho da Viola, as well as original compositions by the trio and Ms. Souza. This recording warranted Luciana the November 2023 cover of Downbeat magazine, a 2024 Grammy nomination as Best Latin Jazz Album, and a spot on NPR’s coveted Tiny Desk Concerts in April of 2024.
Mrs. Souza’s latest recording for Sunnyside Records is Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes, her composition featuring Chico Pinheiro on guitar, and Scott Colley, on bass. In 2022, Mrs. Souza was awarded a New Jazz Works Grant by Chamber Music America, with funding through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The piece loosely tracks a day in someone’s life. Mrs. Souza composed, sang, and played percussion on this live recording and was released on August 30, 2024.
Luciana Souza began her recording career at age three with a radio commercial. She spent four years on faculty at Berklee College of Music, where she received a Bachelor's degree in Jazz Composition. Ms. Souza earned a Master's degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music and taught for four years at Manhattan School of Music. She has conducted master classes all over the world and was a fellow at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology from 2020 to 2023. Ms. Souza is currently on the faculty at UCLA, CalArts, and USC, in Los Angeles. Ms. Souza has twice been named Best Female Jazz Singer by the Jazz Journalists Association, in 2005 and 2013. In 2022, Luciana Souza received a New Jazz Works Grant by Chamber Music America, with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Fund. She lives in Los Angeles, CA, with her husband and their son.
5:30PM / Free | Fees Get Tickets