Celebrity Series of Boston Presents LUCIANA SOUZA TRIO Tonight

(Boston) Celebrity Series of Boston will present Luciana Souza Trio tonight, January 25, 2014, at 8pm at Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge. Sponsored by Amy and Joshua Boger.

Tickets for Luciana Souza Trio start at $30, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Harvard Box Office, Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge.

Luciana Souza has appeared with the Celebrity Series of Boston twice since her 2006 debut. This performance is a Celebrity Series debut for Lionel Loueke and Grégoire Maret.

Born in São Paulo, Brazil in the late sixties, Luciana Souza grew up in a family of Bossa Nova innovators - her father, a singer and songwriter, her mother, a poet and lyricist. Luciana's work as a performer transcends traditional boundaries around musical styles, offering solid roots in jazz, sophisticated lineage in world music, classical repertoire and new music.

As a leader, Souza has been releasing 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 debut recording for Universal, The New Bossa Nova, was met with widespread critical acclaim. Luciana's recordings also include two works based on poetry - The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop And Other Songs, and Neruda. Ms. Souza has performed and recorded with greats including Herbie Hancock (on his Grammy winning record, River - The Joni Letters), Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez and many others. Her longstanding duo work with Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo has earned her accolades, and her complete discography contains more than 50 records as a side singer.

Luciana Souza has been a prominent soloist in two important works by composer Osvaldo Golijov - La Pasion According to St. Mark, and Oceana. She has performed with the Bach Akademie Stuttgart, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Other orchestral appearances include performances with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Her work in chamber music includes a collaboration with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.

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 at age sixteen. She spent four years on faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received a Bachelor's in Jazz Composition. Ms. Souza earned a Master's degree in Jazz Studies from New England Conservatory of Music and taught for four years at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, in New York City. From 2005 to 2010, Luciana was the Jazz Artist in Residence with the prestigious San Francisco Performances.

Lionel Loueke started out on vocals and percussion, but picked up the guitar at age 17. In 1994, he left Africa to pursue jazz studies at the American School of Modern Music in Paris, and then came to the U.S. on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. From there, Loueke gained acceptance to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, where he encountered his Gilfema bandmates Biolcati, Nemeth, Parlato and other musicians with whom he would form lasting creative relationships. Praised by his mentor Herbie Hancock as "a musical painter," Loueke combines harmonic complexity, soaring melody, a deep knowledge of African folk forms, and conventional and extended guitar techniques to create a warm and evocative sound of his own. His previous Blue Note release, Mwaliko, offered a series of duets with Angelique Kidjo, Richard Bona, Esperanza Spalding and Marcus Gilmore.

Grégiore Maret was born in 1975 in Geneva, Switzerland and began playing the harmonica at age 17. His childhood was filled with a diverse array of musical influences from his Harlem-born, African-American mother and his Swiss father, a local jazz musician. Upon graduating from the prestigious Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève, Grégoire made the critical decision to move to New York to pursue jazz studies at the New School University. After his Grammy win, Maret embarked on a two-year tour with the world-class bassist Marcus Miller and subsequently joined Herbie Hancock's band. Maret was asked by Suzuki Harmonica to assist in creating his own Grégoire Maret G-48 and G-48W Signature Chromatic Harmonica series. Maret continues to record and tour with notable musicians and co-leads the trio Gaïa, with pianist Federico Gonzales Peña and drummer Gene Lake.

About Celebrity Series of Boston

Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 75-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world's greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.

The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers-from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more-to Boston's major concert halls for 75 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience-on stages, in schools, at home- everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Amy and Joshua Boger; Eleanor and Frank Pao; Donna and Mike Egan; Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; The Little Family Foundation; Tufts Health Plan; Foley & Lardner LLP; The John S. and Cynthia Reed Foundation; First Republic Bank; The Peabody Foundation; Charlesbank Capital Partners; PTC, The D.L. Saunders Real Estate Corp; Massachusetts Cultural Council; New England Foundation for the Arts.