The Library Carnegie Stage Concert of the South Pasadena Eclectic Music Festival & Arts Crawl on Saturday, April 27, will showcase jazz singer extraordinaire Luciana Souza. Souza will be accompanied by Otmaro Ruiz, a Venezuelan pianist of great note. The dynamic pair will take the stage at 6:30 pm in the beautiful Library Community Room at 1115 El Centro Street. The doors for the free concert will open at 3 p.m. and no tickets or reservations are necessary. They will be preceded by acclaimed jazz/world songstress Julia Vari from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the terrific David Plenn Band from 5:15 pm to 6:15 p.m. Seating is limited and “festival style” (first come, first seated). For more information, please call the Library at (626) 403-7350.
Grammy-winner Luciana Souza is one of the leading lights of contemporary jazz. The Souza style is rooted in the Bossa Nova which took the popular music world by storm in the 1960s. Souza grew up in São Paulo, Brazil in a family of innovative musicians. Luciana’s work as a performer transcends traditional boundaries and her seamless blending of musical forms fuses jazz with the diverse influences of world music.
Ms. Souza began her recording career at age three with a radio commercial, and recorded more than 200 jingles and soundtracks, becoming a first-call studio veteran by age sixteen. Since 2002 Luciana Souza has been releasing highly regarded recordings around the globe – including her six Grammy-nominated albums. Luciana’s initial Universal recording, “The New Bossa Nova” was accorded enthusiastic critical acclaim. Of her 2015 release, “Speaking in Tongues,” The New York Times exclaimed: “Luciana Souza has used her voice as an instrument of empathy and intimacy, cultural linkage and poetic disquisition…singing wordlessly but with full expressive intent.”
Souza has performed and recorded with luminaries including Herbie Hancock (on his Grammy winning record, “River: The Joni Letters”), Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, and many others. Her complete discography contains more than sixty records as a side singer.
Luciana Souza’s singing has been called “transcendental, “perfect, “ and of “unparalleled beauty.” She has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic. the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the American Composers Orchestra. Her chamber music work is highlighted by a collaboration with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.
Luciana has also spent four years on the faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston and has for four years at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Ms. Souza continues to teach Master Classes all over the world. She spent four years on the faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston and continues to teach Master Classes all over the world. From 2005 to 2010, Luciana was the Jazz Artist in Residence with the prestigious San Francisco Performances. In both 2005 and 2013 Luciana was awarded Best Female Jazz Singer by the Jazz Journalists Association.
The Library Carnegie Stage’ concert is able to be presented because of the partnership between the City of South Pasadena, the South Pasadena Public Library, the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, the Lucille and Edward R. Roybal Foundation, South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, The Bissell House Bed & Breakfast, The Eclectic Friends of the Arts of South Pasadena, The Rotary Club of South Pasadena, and the Woman’s Club of South Pasadena. Special thanks to Brad Colerick & Ximena Dussan/DeepMix Entertainment, 210eastsound, Kurtis Nakagawa, Tim Carruth, and Jimmy O’Balles. More information about the Eclectic Music Festival is located at http://theeclectic.rocks/
