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Thank you, Piñon Designs!
Thank you, Piñon Designs, for the beautiful flowers at the CD release concert at Cafe du Nord on September 18, 2008! www.pinondesign.com
Photos for publication.
These photos are available for publication. Simply click on the ones you want and you'll be taken to the full-size version. There, you can download the image to your computer.
"On the way" cover art
150dpi, 799px (w) x 717px (h), RGB
Lucia Playing Violin
72dpi, 3888px (w) x 2592px (h), RGB
Lucia Singing
72dpi, 2592px (w) x 3872px (h), RGB
.jpg "Photo of Lucia Comnes back stage at Cafe DuNord.")
Lucia Back Stage
72dpi, 1162px (w) x 1709px (h), RGB
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About Lucia...
Lucia Comnes is a singer and violinist who interprets songs from many traditions. With a rich background in performance and ethnomusicology, she sings in more than 30 different languages and leads a band that reflects this cultural versatility. An emotive and stunning performer, she takes her audience on a journey around the world as well as into the depths of the human soul. An aspiring composer, Lucia’s first original song, “Water,” debuts on her new album, “On the way.”
A San Francisco native, Lucia was trained since childhood in classical violin, a wide range of vocal techniques, musical theater and dance. She discovered traditional Irish music during a summer tour in 2001, and this led to the study of many other forms of traditional music, including Eastern European, Turkish, Rom (Gypsy), Latin and Jazz. In 2002, at age 18, Lucia joined Kitka (www.kitka.org), an internationally acclaimed women's a cappella vocal ensemble specializing in Balkan/Eastern European folk music, based in Oakland, California, as their first apprentice and youngest member. In 2006 she completed her BA in Ethnomusicology (Long Island University, New York) after research in Ireland, Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Lucia’s extensive travels rich in musical exchange and research inspired her to form a band that could bring these vibrant traditions to new audiences. She linked up with world percussionist, Aharon Wheels Bolsta, and jazz bassist, Sean Stillinger to create a hot world fusion trio that could cross between many genres. She selected some of her favorites traditional songs and with the help of Aharon and Sean, composed fresh arrangements that pushed the boundaries of the traditions, all the while representing them with great sensitivity, knowledge and respect.
The trio has been performing throughout the Bay Area, California, since June of 2007, and has collaborated with many other local artists, including William Bates-Minou (drums, myspace.com/willbates), Dan Cantrell (accordion, www.bellowhead.com), Pat Duffey (guitar, www.myspace.com/rockeyrockstar), Salokhiddin Fakhriev (Uzbek doyra), Farzad Arjmand of Fazz (guitar, www.cdbaby.com/farzadmusic), Zo'la Dubnikova (dance, www.zoladubnikova.com), Barbara Borden (drums, www.bbbeat.com), Claudia Cuentas (flute), and Travis Wernet of Pele's Tears (didgeridoo, www.myspace.com/traviswernet). In May of 2008, Lucia was invited to open for virtuoso violinist, Colm Ó Riain (www.colmoriain.com), at Café du Nord for the San Francisco Irish Fest, and the “trio” officially became a “combo” when she fronted a 5-piece band.
In addition to directing her band, Lucia’s other recent performance highlights include singing with Liam Ó Maonlaí (www.rianrecords.com) of the Hothouse Flowers, and Rónán Ó Snodaigh of Kila (www.kila.ie), during their San Francisco tour in 2008; providing music for various events by international dance pioneer, Anna Halprin (www.annahalprin.org); performing with Lily Storm (www.songbat.com) at the Polyphonic Song Festival (Voices of Stone) in Athens, Greece, in 2006, sharing the stage with Petro-Lukas Halkias and Domna Samiou among others; and accompanying Tuvan singer, Sainkho Namtchylak (www.sainkho.net) in music festivals throughout Russia in 2006.
In the Bay Area, California, Lucia also enjoys working with Moira Smiley and VOCO (www.moirasmiley.com), Tamarind Jones (www.soundsalone.com), Oona Garthwaite (www.myspace.com/oonamusic), Enrique Coria and Yolanda Aranda (www.dawgnet.com/acd_html/acd50.html), Terry Garthwaite (www.terrygarthwaite.com) and Kyle Thayer (cdbaby.com/kylethayer). As a member of Kitka, she enjoyed performing at Grace Cathedral numerous times, performing in the concert series, “Songs from Mama’s Table” with Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir (www.culturalheritagechoir.com), with Marcel Khalife (www.marcelkhalife.com) at the San Francisco World Music Festival in 2005, as well as the concerts with Tzvetanka Varimezova (www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/people/varimezt.htm), Merita Halili (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h-YTIA-iHw), Mariana Sadovska, Christos Govetas (cdbaby.com/christosgovetas) and Pangeo (cdbaby.com/pangeo), and with Rumen Shopov.
Lucia’s passion second to music is the green/environmental movement. Since childhood, Lucia has taken an active role in protecting the planet and working towards a sustainable future. A founding member of the California Freshwater Shrimp Project, Lucia was a planning member of the UNEP Global Youth Conference in 1995. Politically active throughout high school, Lucia helped to lead forums to featuring the student voice, organized protests against standardized testing, organized rallies for the Green Party, and was a leader in the community with the Marin Youth Council, offering alternative social and cultural activities for youth - poerty workshops, open mics, slams, concerts and festivals. She featured as a poet in the Youth Speaks event, “Bringing in the Noise” for Martin Luther King Jr Day in 2002. In 2001 she attended the Nuclear Free Future Awards in Carnsore Point, Ireland, making meaningful connections with activists and artists around the world. When she learned about the damaging effects of Ocean Noise Pollution on marine life, including whales and dolphins, she focused her efforts primarily on this issue and began working closely with the organization Seaflow: Protect Our Living Oceans. In the song, “Water,” Lucia strives to bring attention to the resource which will be the source of much conflict in the future if we don’t take action now.
