Lara Downes

Pianist Lara Downes has been called “an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten” (The Log Journal). An iconoclast and trailblazer, her dynamic work as a sought-after performer, a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, a producer, curator, activist, and arts advocate positions her as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene. 

Ms. Downes’ musical roadmap seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family, and collective memory, excavating the broad landscape of American music to create a series of acclaimed performance and recording projects that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find common ground and shared experience.

During the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Downes’ performances and residencies include appearances with the Boston Pops, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Washington Performing Arts, the Ravinia Festival, the Gilmore Foundation Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Clarice Smith Center at University of Maryland, the Oregon Bach Festival, Caramoor, and many others. 

Ms. Downes is the creator and curator of the Rising Sun Music initiative, a groundbreaking recording series that sheds light on the music and stories of Black composers over the past 200 years, featuring performances by a wide range of today’s leading artists including Davóne Tines, Will Liverman, Nicole Cabell, and Regina Carter. She is the creator and host of the NPR Music series AMPLIFY with Lara Downes, and the popular host of Evening Music with Lara Downes on Classical KDFC in San Francisco. Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sphinx Organization, the Classical Recording Foundation Award, the Loghaven Artist Residency, and the Center for Cultural Innovation, among others.

Her fierce commitment to activism and advocacy sees her working with organizations including the ACLU, Feeding America, the Lower Eastside Girls Club, and the Sphinx Organization. ​She is an Artist Ambassador for Headcount, a non-partisan organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy.