Luciana Souza

The New York Times called her voice "smooth-surfaced, coolly sensuous and dartingly agile."

Souza was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. Her father Walter Santos was a singer, songwriter, and commercial musician who also contributed background vocals to bossa nova recordings by Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, and her mother Tereza Souza was a poet and lyricist. She began her recording career at age three with a radio commercial. In 1985, at age 17, she left Brazil for the United States to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received a bachelor's degree in jazz composition, and later spent four years as a member of the faculty. 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. Souza has also taught at the University of California, Los Angeles and California Institute of the Arts, and since 2024 is a professor at the USC Thornton School of Music.

Souza has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Danilo Pérez, Guillermo Klein, John Patitucci, and others. She has been a soloist in new works by composers including Osvaldo Golijov, Derek Bermel, Patrick Zimmerli, Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, performing with the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, American Composers Orchestra, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and A Far Cry. Souza produced her first album, An Answer to Your Silence (1998), herself. For her second album, The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (2000), she composed a song cycle revolving around the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, while her 2004 album Neruda features her compositions and vocals set to the words of Pablo Neruda. Souza appeared in the 2008 David Mamet film Redbelt, and cowrote/translated several songs for the soundtrack. Her song "Muita Bobeira" was featured as a music sample on Windows Vista. On her 2012 album The Book of Chet, she covers the songs of Chet Baker. Her 2018 album The Book of Longing presents her settings of poems by Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Christina Rossetti. That year, she collaborated and toured with the Yellowjackets in support of their album Raising Our Voice. Souza was San Francisco Performances' jazz artist in residence from 2005 through 2010. In 2022, she received a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant to compose a new album-length piece, Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes. She collaborated with Trio Corrente on her 2023 album Cometa, with covers of Brazilian classics and original samba songs. Their performance on NPR's Tiny Desk concert series premiered on May 10, 2024, with the set list featuring songs from Cometa: "Bem Que Te Avise", "Baião Joy", "Cometa", and "Quando Você Vier".

In 2006, Souza married record producer and musician Larry Klein. They have one son, Noah. They live in Los Angeles.

An Answer to Your Silence (NYC Records 6030, 1998) The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (Sunnyside 1091, 2000) Brazilian Duos (Sunnyside 1100, 2002) Norte e Sul North and South (Sunnyside 1112, 2003) Neruda (Sunnyside 1132, 2004) Duos II (Sunnyside 1142, 2005) The New Bossa Nova (Verve B0009456 02, 2007) Tide (Verve B0012688 02, 2009) Duos III (Sunnyside 1315, 2012) The Book of Chet (Sunnyside 1316, 2012) Speaking in Tongues (Sunnyside 1410, 2015) The Book of Longing (Sunnyside 1518, 2018) Storytellers (with the WDR Big Band) (Sunnyside 1575, 2020) Cometa (with Trio Corrente) (Sunnyside 1696, 2023) Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes (Sunnyside, 2024)