Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts Presents Mariza Feb. 21

Mariza, the reigning queen of Portuguese fado music, appears Saturday, February 21, at 8 pm at UConn's Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in Storrs, co-sponsored by Portuguese Foundation of Connecticut. According to The London Times, "Mariza has it all - charisma, a voice to die for and stunning looks... [She is] destined to become one of the world's great divas."

Mariza gives a unique, contemporary interpretation to fado, Portugal's proud and melancholy music about destiny, love's betrayal, death and despair. Her first album, Fado Em Mim, went triple platinum in Portugal in 2001. Since then, her concerts and albums have been selling out everywhere from London to Moscow to Washington, D.C.

UNICEF (the United Nations Children Fund) chose Mariza as Portugal's cultural representative, and her country appointed her "Portugal's Ambassador" because her music transcends all borders. On a a CD dedicated to the Olympic Games, sung in both Portuguese and English, Mariza even sings "A Thousand Years" with Sting.

BBC Radio 3 considers her the Best European Artist in World Music. Germany's critics presented her with the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, based on the most rigorous standards for supreme achievement in recording. At Festival Quebec she walked off with the First Award for Most Outstanding Performance. At the MIDEM in Cannes, she won the European Commission's European Border Breakers Award.

Fado, which means "fate," is often associated with longing, and the waves of Portuguese immigrants afflicted by saudade, the desire for something that is probably not possible. But Mariza insists that fado is not necessarily sad. She bears no resemblance to the black-clad, somber singers of the past. She is tall and lithe, wears vertiginous high heels and sports shortly cropped blond hair. "Fado - and Lisbon - have the happiness, the fashion, the love, the saudade - everything," she said.

Architect Frank Gehry, creator of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, was so enchanted by Mariza's singing that he created a taverna on the stage just for her performance. Her albums have reached top positions on the Billboard charts for World Music. The Times of London called her most recent, Transparente, "a reference for contemporary World Music"; Le Monde defined it as "Lightning - one of the best albums of fado for a long time." But a BBC Radio commentator said it best: "When Mariza sings, time stands still."

Artist's website: www.mariza.com

Jorgensen is located at 2132 Hillside Rd., University of Connecticut, Storrs. Tickets are $30 and $28 (some discounts apply.) For tickets and information, call (860) 486-4226 or order online at: jorgensen.uconn.edu. Free parking is available across the street in the North Garage. Box Office opens one hour prior to the event for walk-up ticket sales.

 

 

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