Lila Downs
Saturday, October 13, 7:30 pm
Englert Theatre
Give Lila Downs sixty seconds and she'll paint a vocal landscape covering the full spectrum of human emotion. Born in Oaxaca, Mexico to a Mixtec folk singer and a Scottish-American art professor, Downs incorporates her heritage into a Pan-American musical palette that fuses traditional Mexican music with jazz, blues, soul, and reggae to create a multi-lingual, frontier-busting sound. With seamless strokes, her fierce voice encompasses smooth velvet seduction, radiant copper confidence, and heartrending gasping sadness. Blending in smart political lyrics, Downs is reenergizing the traditional into living modern masterpieces.
The concert is part of the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies' and International Programs' The Latino Midwest symposium (October 11-13).
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
