Luciana Souza

Luciana Souza, born 12 July 1966 in São Paulo, Brazil, is a celebrated Brazilian jazz vocalist, composer, and educator whose career spans over three decades. Raised in a musical family—her father Walter Santos contributed background vocals to iconic bossa nova recordings while her mother Tereza Souza was a poet—Souza began recording at the tender age of three, appearing in a radio commercial. At seventeen she relocated to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music, earning a bachelor’s degree in jazz composition and later joining the faculty for four years, before completing a master’s in jazz studies at the New England Conservatory and teaching at Manhattan School of Music, UCLA, and California Institute of the Arts. Since 2024 she holds a professorship at the USC Thornton School of Music, reflecting her deep commitment to music education. Souza’s discography showcases her versatility, ranging from the poetic song cycle The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (2000) to the lyrical tribute The Book of Longing (2018) that sets poems by Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, and others to music. Her collaborations read like a who’s‑who of contemporary jazz and classical circles, featuring work with Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, Maria Schneider, and the New York Philharmonic, among many others. A Grammy‑winning artist, she earned a Grammy in 2007 as a featured vocalist on Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters and has accumulated seven additional nominations through 2024. Souza’s personal life includes her marriage to record producer and musician Larry Klein in 2006, with whom she has a son, Noah, and the family resides in Los Angeles. Continually expanding her artistic horizons, she received a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant in 2022 for Twenty‑Four Short Musical Episodes and remains an influential voice in both jazz performance and academic circles.