Luciana Souza

Grammy-winner Luciana Souza is one of jazz’s leading singers and interpreters. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Souza’s work transcends traditional boundaries around musical styles. She has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Guillermo Klein, Bobby McFerrin, John Patitucci, Danilo Perez, Maria Schneider, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and many others. 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. She has twice been named “Female Jazz Singer of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association (2005, 2013).

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, presents her settings of poems by Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Christina Rossetti. Storytellers was Souza’s 2020 release, a collaboration with arranger Vince Mendoza and the WDR Big Band Cologne honoring Brazilian storytellers in music. Souza’s latest release is Cometa, with the Brazilian Jazz Ensemble, Trio Corrente. It features 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 Souza.

Souza spent four years on faculty at Berklee College of Music, where she received a bachelor's degree in jazz composition. She 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 was a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2020 to 2023. Souza is currently on the faculty at UCLA, CalArts, and USC, in Los Angeles.