Grammy winner Luciana Souza is one of today’s leading jazz singers and interpreters. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, she has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock on his Grammy-winning Album of the Year River: The Joni Letters, and with Paul Simon, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Danilo Pérez, Miguel Zenón, and the Yellowjackets, among many others.

Souza has been soloist in performances of new works by composers Osvaldo Golijov, Derek Bermel, Patrick Zimmerli, and Caroline Shaw with the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Last August, she performed Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos to mark the opening of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Souza’s six Grammy-nominated records are Brazilian Duos, North and South, Duos II, Tide, Duos III, and The Book of Chet. Her critically acclaimed ninth recording, The Book of Longing, featured her settings of poems by Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Christina Rossetti. Souza’s 2023 release, Cometa, with Brazil’s Trio Corrente celebrated samba composers such as Dorival Caymmi and Paulinho da Viola, as well as original compositions by Souza and the trio. This recording earned Souza a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album and an invitation to appear on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.

Souza’s latest recording is Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes, which was made possible by a New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America, with funding through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Souza spent four years on faculty at the 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 the Manhattan School of Music. Additionally, she was a fellow at MIT from 2020 to 2023. Souza is currently on the faculty at UCLA, CalArts, and USC. She has twice been named Best Female Jazz Singer by the Jazz Journalists Association.