Mr. Lilo

Lilo Gonzalez is a singer and songwriter who has touched the lives of many people with his fun yet thoughtful music, sending a message to adults and children of all cultures that we can and should unite to build a better world for all.

Lilo, or “Don Lilo” as his students use to call him, was a grade school teacher in El Salvador. He fell in love with the poetic lyrics of Joan Manuel Serrat and Facundo Cabral, at a time when social injustice became unbearable and erupted into a brutal civil war. As an undocumented immigrant in the United States, music became an oasis for Lilo, opening connections to different people who surprisingly had much in common with him. He discovered the music of Ruben Blades and Pete Seeger and was impressed with how their songs could change the way we think.

After working with at-risk youth and elementary school children, he stumbled on a job teaching music to preschool children. He saw this as a great opportunity to bring the love of music to young children, foster their creativity, exposing them to many cultures, and helping them believe they can create a better world. In a few years, he was traveling between ten different music programs, and “Mr. Lilo” became a household name for hundreds of families in the area.

Building community, finding our common human threads, instilling hope, and fighting for justice have all been themes in Lilo’s life that have poured into his music and his daily interactions. His persona is as special as his music, and has taken him to perform at venues such as the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Lincoln Center, President Clinton’s Inauguration, the Levine School of Music, the Festival Verdad in El Salvador, many festivals, conferences and universities, and even to Cairo, Egypt.

Lilo released his first children’s CD in 2016. This album has been requested with great enthusiasm by his students and parents and is a compilation of original and traditional songs they have enjoyed throughout the years.