Berklee Today: Wherever the River Flows
Luciana Souza
"I like the idea that music is a large river, like the Amazon, that branches out into smaller streams that go through the whole country," says vocalist Luciana Souza. Given the trajectory of her career in music, the metaphor of a river is fitting. Souza's course has followed several divergent musical tributaries that have taken her through territory she probably never imagined she would encounter while growing up in Brazil. The journey has been as exciting as it has been unpredictable. Since her start in music as a teenage jingle singer in São Paulo, she's transcended the boundaries of style and genre and has performed and recorded with such diverse artists as Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, John Patitucci, Hermeto Pascoal, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Fred Hersch, Osvaldo Golijov, and dozens more. On a given night she might be singing in a club with a lone guitarist accompanying her or in larger venues with jazz ensembles ranging from a trio to jazz orchestra or in prestigious concert halls with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Boston Symphony, or Hollywood Bowl orchestras, to name a few.