American pianist Lara Downes has released her
new album, Holes in the Sky, on Portrait, an imprint of the Sony Music
Masterworks label.
Holes in the Sky is a genre-fluid collection of music
written and performed by today's leading female artists, celebrating the
contributions of phenomenal women to the past, present, and future of American
music.
The music of Holes in the Sky tells the story of what women
and girls can contribute to the world when they are given a chance - their
dreams can make holes in the sky. Lara collaborates with an extraordinary
multi-generational group of female guest artists on this album, including the
iconic singer / songwriter Judy Collins, boundary-breaking violinist Rachel
Barton Pine, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, fast-rising cellist Ifetayo
Ali-Landing, and the urban youth vocal ensemble Musicality.
The album is presented in direct support of PLAN
International Because I Am A Girl, bolstering the rights and empowerment of
girls and young women around the globe; Women's Empowerment in Sacramento,
ending homelessness one woman - and one family - at a time; the Downtown
Women's Center in Los Angeles, a permanent and supportive housing and
healthcare provider for women; Girls on the Run in Spokane, teaching life
skills through fun, engaging lessons that celebrate the joy of movement; and
the Lower East Side Girls Club, breaking the cycle of poverty by training the
next generation of ethical, entrepreneurial, and environmental leaders.
Reflections on Holes in the Sky from Lara Downes...
"Sometimes interviewers ask me about being a woman in
music - where I find inspiration, and where I face challenges. And my answer,
always, is that I'm guided and inspired by the women before me – the ones who
were ahead of their time in the courage of their creativity, who paved the way
for me to take my own musical journey ...
A few years ago, this quote from Georgia O'Keeffe got stuck in
my head and my heart: "I want real things - live people to take hold of -
to see - and talk to - music that makes holes in the sky - I want to love as
hard as I can."
The world of women has always been my home. But the world of
my music, of my piano teachers and the Great Pianists and Great Composers, with
their stern, bearded portraits, their hundreds of sonatas and etudes that took
up the hours of my days – that was a world of men and I felt not quite at home.
I went looking for the women ... I discovered the women who
lived in the margins and footnotes of my music history books. They were so few,
in comparison ... To rise up from the weight of petticoats and ladylike
behavior, tyrannical fathers, overshadowing husbands, unchecked offspring –
they were heroic, these women. They were giants ...
When I make music with other women, I feel a kinship, a
common history that brought us here. We have freedoms beyond any of our
ancestors – even the mothers who raised us. We have very little, in the scope
of things, to hold us down. But still, I think, we feel the weight of the past.
Still we rise ...
It feels like such a privilege to pay tribute to the women
who preceded us, the pioneers ahead of their time. The ones who dared to want
real things, to reach into the sky. Their courage is the ground we walk on. And
it feels like a celebration of our own freedom - hard won, still gaining - to
make beauty in the world, to take risks and move out ahead of our own time,
with the courage that is our legacy - the courage to reach for real things, to
dream as big as we can, and to share this music that makes holes in the
sky."
Lara Downes is among the foremost American pianists of her
generation, an iconoclast dedicated to expanding the resonance and relevance of
live music for diverse audiences.A trailblazer on and off-stage, she follows a
musical roadmap that seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family,
and collective memory.
Downes' playing has been called "ravishing" by
Fanfare Magazine, "luscious, moody and dreamy" by The New York Times,
and "addicting" by The Huffington Post. As a chart-topping recording
artist, a powerfully charismatic performer, a curator and taste-maker, Downes
is recognized as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene.
Lara's forays into the broad landscape of American music
have created a series of acclaimed recordings, including America Again,
selected by NPR as one of "10 Albums that Saved 2016", and hailed as
"a balm for a country riven by disunion" by the Boston Globe. Her
recent Sony Classical debut release For Lenny debuted in the Billboard Top 20
and was awarded the 2017 Classical Recording Foundation Award.
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