Lourdes Perez

Lourdes Perez (b. 1961 San Sebastian, Puerto Rico) is a prolific contemporary recording artist, songwriter, composer, arranger, poet, vocalist and guitarist. She is also one of few female decimistas (writers of décima, a specialized form of Spanish poetry). Lourdes’ music – often conjuring comparisons to the soulful world music genres of cante jondo, morna and fado –draws from her jíbara (Puerto Rican mountain) roots and a socially conscious genre of Spanish/pan-Latin American music called nueva trova or nueva canción.

Considered by many to be “among the great Latin American female vocalists” and songwriters, Lourdes Pérez has performed duets onstage with numerous legendary and diverse artists, from Argentinean singer Mercedes Sosa and Mexican master decimista Guillermo Velazquez to Canadian pop artist Jane Siberry. Acclaimed for her “ability to transcend language…with her achingly beautiful contralto voice,” she has been described by music critic Michael Corcoran as “Edith Piaf fronting the Gypsy Kings.” Wielding a startling combination of power and fragility within the same voice, her varied audiences often find themselves crying without necessarily understanding a word.

This December, 2006 Lourdes Pérez became one of the first 50 artists to be named as a United States Artists Fellow and was awarded a $50,000 unrestricted grant in honor of her contribution to Music. (http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/USAFellows/index.cfm). This fellowship recognizes the “finest living artists in the country” and Lourdes was one of 5 musicians to be so honored. Also in 2006, her song, Paloma Urbana (Urban Dove) won Best Latin Song in the Just Plain Folks Music Awards. She is featured in the 2005 Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States (Oxford Press) and in World Music: The Basics by Richard Nidel (2005), as well as one of 1000 performers in the world profiled in the 2000 Music Hound World Essential Album Guide.

A fiercely independent and humble musician, Lourdes has devoted her work to promoting human rights and dignity around the globe. Lourdes' solo album, "Este Filo" (www.cdbaby.com/perez5) is dedicated to Carmen Jimenez "Doña Titin," wife of Rafael Cancel Miranda and a heroine of the struggle for the dignity and sovereignty of Puerto Rico. Her concert at a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem in 2002 prompted her Spanish translation of the beloved Arabic song by Ahmad Kaboor/Tawfeeq Zayad, "Unadeekum (Te llamo)." The song, recorded live on the radio, was donated as a single to the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund (see links) and was recently released on her CD, Este Filo. A song that Pérez wrote for the people of Sierra Blanca, Texas was read into the U.S. Congressional record by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (Texas) as part of a successful campaign against turning a low-income Mexican American communities on the Texas-Mexico border into nuclear waste dumping grounds.

Her published works includes 14 CD and two oral history books, a full length film score, a short film score, 2 modern dance scores, a theater score and numerous individual tributes, while several of her songs appear in films, compilations and anthologies. The contemporary Puerto Rican trova group, Somos Tres, and Lebanese singer May Nasr have recorded and interpreted Lourdes’ music (http://www.somostres.com and http://www.myspace.com/maynasr)

For more information, contact Jennifer Davis:
encantoproductions@gmail.com

LOURDES PEREZ

R E P R E S E N T A T I V E P E R F O R M A N C E S
• Dialogando con Toti Figueroa, Radio WPRA 990 AM, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, July 2012

• Radio Raíces, WLRP 1460, La voz del Pepino con Victor Rivera, July 2012


• Gibralfaro Castle, duet concert with May Nasr, Málaga, Spain, July 2011


• Plaza de Casares, duet concert with May Nasr, Casares, Spain, July 2011


• Bernstein & Maghreblian House concert series, May 2010


• Solo performance, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA, October 2009

• Insight with Jeffrey Callison, KXJZ 90.9, Sacramento, CA, October 2009

• Written in Water, Duet concert with May Nasr, Esperanza Center, San Antonio, TX, May 2009

• 25th Anniversary, Festival de Huapango Arribeño, Xichu, Guanajuato, Mexico, December 2007

• Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA, October 2007

• Esperanza Peace & Justice Center 20th Anniversary w/ Eva Ybarra & Azul, San Antonio, TX, October 2007

•CD Release Concert with Miriam Perez, Casa Abierta de las Bellas Artes, Rincon, Puerto Rico, February 2007

• Comunicando con Toti Figueroa, Radio WPRA 990 AM, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, February 2007

• Cultura Viva, televised live, Puerto Rico, February 2007

• A Song for Ana, One World Theatre, Austin, Texas, December 2006

• Jazz at Lincoln Center performance, New York, NY, September 2006

•Open air concert with Somos Tres, Casa Abierta de las Bellas Artes, Rincon, Puerto Rico , February, 2006

• Virtual Release of Este Filo CD, Esperanza Center, San Antonio, TX 2005

• Release of commissioned composition, Azul y Serena, at unveiling of world’s largest Guadalupe mosaic, San Antonio, TX 2003

• 1ro Conferencia en Solidaridad con el Pueblo Palestino, Zacatecas City, Mexico, 2003

• Duet performance with Guillermo Velázquez, Cervantino Festival, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2003

• Series of duet performances with Mercedes Sosa, One World Theatre, Austin, TX 2002

• D’Heisheh Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, Palestine 2002

• Live satellite TV performance, “A Message to the World,” Gaza City, Gaza 2002

• Nat. Assoc. of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC) conference, featured performer w/ special guests Jacqueline Rago, Jon Santos, others, Austin, TX 2002

• Festival de Huapango Arribeño y Poesía Decimal, Xichú, Guanajuato 1997, 1999, 2002

• Debut run of “Santuarios,” St. Phillip’s College, San Antonio, TX 2001

• Concert, Campamento Justicia y Paz (in front of Camp Garcia), Vieques, Puerto Rico 2000

• Debut run of “The Leaf Storm,” University of Texas, Austin, TX 2000

• Concert, San Francisco Cultural Center, Chihuahua, México, 1999

• New Texas Festival, Jessen Auditorium/UT, Austin, TX 1999

• Under the Volcano Festival, Vancouver, Canada, 1998

• El Centro Cultural Casa Aboy, San Juan, Puerto Rico 1999

• Festival de Los Inocentes, San Sebastián, Puerto Rico 1998

• Suffragette Sessions Tour: 12-city, collaborative tour with Indigo Girls, Jane Siberry, 1998

• Texas Civil Rights Project Annual Gala, Austin, TX 1994 - 1998

• Duet performance with Irene Farrera, Astraea Foundation Gala, NY, NY 1998

• Duet performances with Tish Hinojosa, Austin & Kerrville, TX 1995, 1997, 1998

• Concert & workshops, Rio Bravo (colonia), TX 1998, 1999

• No Nukes Conference with Bonnie Raitt, Austin, TX 1997

• Northwest Folklikfe Festival, Seattle, WA 1997

• Release of 2nd CD, Vestigios, University of Texas LBJ Auditorium, Austin, TX 1997

• Intercontinental Encuentro (San Cristobal, 5 autonomous zones), Chiapas, México, 1996

• Iowa Women’s Music Festival, Iowa City, IA 1996

• Kerrville Folk Festival, 25th Anniversary, Kerrville, TX 1996

• El Arcano, special guest of Marcial Alejandro, Coyohuacán, México 1996

• Nahualli Festival, duet with Guillermo Velázquez y Los Leones, Austin, TX 1996

• Tribute performance for Angela Davis and Gloria Steinem, Austin, TX 1996

• Boston Symphony Hall, invited guest of Mercedes Sosa, Boston, MA 1995

• Bass Concert Hall/UT, opening performance for Mercedes Sosa, Austin, TX 1995

• Rhythmfest, Aiken, SC 1995

• Clarksville Jazz Festival (Winner Songwriter of Year), Austin, TX 1994-1996

• South by Southwest Music Conference, Austin, TX 1994, 1995

• Michigan Women’s Music Festival, Walhalla, MI 1994

• Celebration of Craftwomen, San Francisco, CA 1994

• Austin Acoustic Music Festival, Austin, TX 1993 – 1996

• Mujercanto, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, San Antonio, TX 1992 - 1998

LOURDES PEREZ

P U B L I S H E D W O R K


• LATEST RELEASE: En vivo: Lourdes Perez con Miriam Perez (Chee Wee 2007), duet CD

Este Filo (Chee Wee 2005), solo CD

• Azúl y Serena (Chee Wee 2003), commissioned work, recorded with the Dama de Noche Orchestra

• Pájaros de otro canto (Chee Wee 2003), commissioned soundtrack for the film, “¿Adónde Fue Juan José?” (for which she composed the score and is the principal contributing artist)

• Selections from Tres Oraciones (Chee Wee 2002)

• Vestigios (Vivavoce Records-1997)

• Recuerdate Por Mi (Chee Wee 1994)

Full length scores:
• Azul y Serena (multimedia tribute concert)
• Santuarios (modern/folkloric dance)
• conflama (word opera, theater)
• Adonde Fue Juan Jose (feature film)
• Marejada (multimedia, oral history)

Lourdes’ work appears in various short films, anthologies and compilations and other artists have interpreted and recorded her work.