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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.
Lucia Playing Violin
72dpi, 3888px (w) x 2592px (h), RGB
Lucia Singing
72dpi, 2592px (w) x 3872px (h), RGB
Lucia Back Stage
72dpi, 1162px (w) x 1709px (h), RGB
Lucia Burgundy Top
72dpi, 2195px (w) x 3300px (h), RGB
Lucia Burgundy Top,
Black & White Photo
72dpi, 2195px (w) x 3300px (h), RGB
Print resolution CD cover
150dpi, 799px (w) x 717px (h), RGB
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About Lucia…
Lucia Comnes is an American singer and violinist who interprets songs from many traditions, a songwriter, and an artistic director who has produced three albums and a myriad of musical collaborations in the Bay Area and internationally. A San Francisco native with a rich background in performance, travel and ethnomusicology, her focus has been Irish/Celtic and Balkan/ Eastern European folk music.
Lucia Comnes
She started her career as a vocalist with Kitka in 2002, the Oakland-based women’s acappella vocal ensemble specializing in Balkan/Eastern European folk music. Simultaneously Lucia became active in the Irish music scene in Ireland and the U.S. She has studied with fiddle masters such as Martin Hayes, Kevin Burke and Oisín MacDiarmada, played in countless sessions, performed with numerous artists, including Liam Ó’Maonlaí (The Hothouse Flowers), and attended the Traditional Irish Music Program at University College, Cork, to study spoken Irish (Gaelic) and sean-nos, or ‘old-style,’ singing in 2005. Lucia and her band were featured in the San Francisco Irish Festival in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and starred in San Francisco’s 160th St Patrick’s Day Festival Civic Center Plaza Concert 2011.
In 2006 she completed her BA in Ethnomusicology (Friends World College, 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. With bassist, Sean Stillinger, and percussionist, Aharon Wheels Bolsta, her debut album “On the way” was released in 2008 featuring songs in seven languages from countries including Bulgaria, Albania, Turkey, Greece and Ireland. The one original song, “Water,” weaves a West African groove on the calabash with a thick bass line, melodic flute and violin conversations, and smooth three-part vocal harmonies.
From solo to trio to fronting a five-piece band, Lucia has collaborated with many artists, including locals like Dan Cantrell (accordion, www.bellowhead.com), Farzad Arjmand of Fazz (guitar, www.cdbaby.com/farzadmusic), Zo’la Dubnikova (dance, www.zoladubnikova.com), Barbara Borden (drums, www.bbbeat.com), Colm Ó Riain (virtuoso violinist, www.colmoriain.com), 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)
Other 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.
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 regeneration of the planet. Formative experiences in her youth have resulted in an Earth-based worldview and a life-long commitment to being part of the solution to the overwhelming environmental challenges of our time. A founding member of the California Freshwater Shrimp Project (currently STRAW: Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed), Lucia was a planning member of the UNEP Global Youth Conference in 1995. Politically active throughout her life, Lucia has always been a leader in her community, offering alternative social and cultural activities for youth – 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 (currently Pacific Environment). In her compositions, Lucia strives to bring people back in connection with nature and with their own roots.
Popular Press Quotes:
“Luminous vocalist” – San Jose Mercury News
“Ethnomusicologist songbird” – Pacific Sun
“A singular voice… otherworldly and embedded with soul and spirit…Comnes lives in San Francisco but her home is the world at large.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Lucia is also a liaison for Modiba Productions, Publishing and Licensing on the West Coast.
