Luciana Souza to Perform with the Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors

On Wednesday, March 6, Grammy-winning vocalist Luciana Souza B.M. '88 will perform live at the Red Room at Cafe 939 on WBGO’s The Checkout—Live at Berklee. The show is part of the series of webcasts and radio broadcasts aired on legendary jazz station WBGO, featuring the top musicians on the New York jazz scene.

At the concert, Souza will perform with the Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors, an ensemble comprising some of the finest graduate student musicians in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. The group features Aga Derlak and Anastassiya Petrova on piano, Stefano Battaglia on bass, Jacob Means on electric and acoustic mandolin, Tareq Rantisi on percussion, Luke Norris on tenor saxophone and flute, and Jireh Calo and Malwina Masternak on vocals.

Luciana Souza is one of jazz’s leading singers and interpreters. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Souza’s work transcends traditional stylistic boundaries. She has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, and many others. She has also been a prominent soloist in important new works by composers Osvaldo Golijov, Derek Bermel, Patrick Zimmerli, Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, performing with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the American Composers Orchestra.

Souza has been releasing celebrated recordings—including six Grammy-nominated albums—since 2002. Her critically acclaimed new album for the Sunnyside label, The Book of Longing, presents her settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Christina Rossetti, and Leonard Cohen. "Poetry has always been the marrow of the gifted singer Luciana Souza’s art,” said The New Yorker.

Souza began her recording career at age 3 with a radio commercial. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in jazz composition from Berklee College of Music, a master’s degree in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, and served as a faculty member at Berklee and Manhattan School of Music. She has twice been named Female Jazz Singer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Luciana Souza and the Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors perform on Wednesday, March 6, at 8:00 p.m., at the Red Room at Cafe 939. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 with any college ID. The concert can also be viewed live online at wbgo.org.

New York area radio station WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM and Berklee present the eighth year of The Checkout—Live at Berklee. The series brings critically acclaimed Berklee alumni back to their alma mater for concert broadcasts from the Red Room at Cafe 939. Previous performers have included Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah B.M. '04, Ingrid Jensen B.M. '89, Joe Lovano '72 '98H, Guillermo Klein '95, Chihiro Yamanaka '00, Melissa Aldana B.M. '09, Walter Smith B.M. '02, Matthew Stevens B.M. '04, and Victor Prieto '02.

Each edition of The Checkout—Live at Berklee is webcast live in high definition video and archived for later viewing at checkoutjazz.org. Shows are broadcast in the New York metro area on WBGO-FM, and heard worldwide on wbgo.org, as a special edition of The Checkout, the multimedia show featuring what’s new on New York’s jazz scene.