Executive & Artistic Director

Thor Steingraber

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Lila Downs

Día de Muertos

With Special Guests

Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles

Fri | Oct 24 8pm

Run time: approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission

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Songs will be announced from the stage

All ticket purchasers will receive a link via email on Saturday, October 25, to watch back and enjoy tonight's live-streamed concert, along with artist interviews, for 48 hours.

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Program Note

Musicians

Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles Dancers

Lila Downs

Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles

Lila Downs Production Staff

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The Soraya

Our Supporters | The Soraya Team

Lila Downs

LILA DOWNS is one of the most influential artists in Latin America. She has one of the world’s most singular voices, and is known for her charismatic performances. Her own compositions often combine genres and rhythms as diverse as Mexican rancheras and corridos, boleros, jazz standards, hip-hop, cumbia, and North American folk music. Her music often focuses on social justice, immigration, and women’s issues.

She grew up in both Minnesota and Oaxaca Mexico, her mother is from the Mixtec indigenous group, and her father was Scottish-American. Lila sings in Spanish, English, and various Native American languages such as Zapotec, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Maya, and Purepecha.

She has recorded duets with artists as diverse as Mercedes Sosa, Caetano Veloso, Juanes, Norah Jones, YoYo Ma, Juan Gabriel, Carla Morison, Natalia LaFourcade, Santana, The Chieftains, Nina Pastori, Soledad, Diego La Cigala, Aida Cuevas, Toto La Momposina, and Bunbury. Chavela Vargas “named” Lila her “successor”.

She has sung with symphonies such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the UNAM symphony in Mexico, as well as with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. She has given concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Hollywood Bowl, Auditorio Nacional and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. She was invited by Barack Obama to sing at the White House, and has performed at the Oscars for her participation in the film Frida.

Lila has recorded 11 studio albums. She has been nominated for 11 GRAMMY Awards and has won seven.

LILA DOWNS

Ganadora del Grammy y de seis Latin Grammy, la cantante Lila Downs es una de las voces más poderosas y singulares que existen hoy en día.

Su simbólica presencia en un escenario contando conmovedoras historias, ha trascendido todas las barreras del lenguaje.

Nacida y criada tanto en Oaxaca como en Minnesota, Lila Downs, hija de una mujer Indigena Mixteca y padre angloamericano, ha escrito narrativas de resistencia Indigena protegiendo la visión originaria de las plantas y comida sagradas de su cultura Oaxaqueña guardando las tradiciones del continente Americano.

Con influencias que van desde la música folklórica y ranchera de México hasta la música del sur de estados unidos cruzando barreras y generando sonidos que van desde el Folk, Jazz, Blues Folklórica, Indigena, y ranchera hasta el Hip Hop.

Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles (BFLA)

Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles (BFLA) was founded in 2011 by Kareli Montoya and has distinguished itself as the nation's premier Mexican folk dance company. Their skillful dancers have graced world-class venues such as the Anaheim Convention Center, Orpheum Theater, Nokia Theater, Greek Theater, John Anson Ford Amphitheater, Santa Barbara Bowl, the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, Staples Center, Tempe Center for the Arts and the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Since its inception, BFLA has worked with the industry's finest GRAMMY Award-winning artists such as Lila Downs, Pepe Aguilar, Mariachi Divas and Mariachi Los Camperos.

They have shared the stage and accompanied mariachi greats like Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlan, world-famous Mariachi Vargas and Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar.

Not shy of any genre, Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles has worked with music celebrities like Ana Barbara, Morrissey, Ruben (Cafe Tacuba), Las Cafeteras, Beatriz Adriana, Banda El Recodo, Paquita la del Barrio, Empress Of, and Armenian pop star Lilit Hovhannisyan. This amazing dance troop was the first Folklórico company in the country to accompany symphony orchestras such as the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and the Marina del Rey Symphony, both conducted by Frank Fetta.

Media coverage has made BFLA internationally recognized especially after being featured in the 2016 National Geographic Traveler UK edition and with their collaboration with Mitu Network on a Mariachi Remake of Beauty and the Beast's "A Tale as Old as Time," featuring Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar and BFLA's Director, Kareli Montoya. The video went viral on Facebook at 15 million views (and counting)! If you have seen the Pixar Coco Live at the Hollywood Bowl or on Disney+, then you have already had the opportunity to see BFLA in action, as they assisted Disney Studios with magical performances during 2017 for the release of Coco."They were the folkloristas at the D23 Expo where they performed on stage with Benjamin Bratt, Mariachi Divas, and the GRAMMY®-winning Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band.

Perhaps you caught them at the Coco Premiere at El Capitan Theatre or even on Dancing With the Stars, "Disney Night." If you missed those performances, we are sure you saw them grace the stage at the 90th Annual Academy Awards alongside Natalia Lafourcade, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Miguel with a rendition of Coco's Academy Award-Winning song, "Remember Me."