Lara Downes

At this concert, chart-topping pianist and cultural visionary Lara Downes is joined by a group of groundbreaking American artists who represent the breadth of our musical landscape: Folk icon Judy Collins, the Austin-based multi-instrumental Americana quartet Invoke, Grammy award-winning singer and poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir join Downes for a revelatory celebration reflecting the shared human experiences and journeys that connect us as Americans, regardless of time and place.

Creating a gathering space for all of us to contemplate the long arc of history and recognize our capacity for empathy and community, Downes and her friends explore the timeless truths and beauties of American music “beyond category.”

Recently named “Classical Woman of the Year” by NPR’s Performance Today, American pianist Lara Downes has been called “a musical ray of hope” (NBC News) and “a trailblazing pianist who combines exquisite musicality with an acute awareness of how an artist can make a positive and lasting social impact” (Piano Magazine). She seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family, and collective memory, creating performances and recording projects that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find common ground and shared experience. Besides her visibility as a performer and Billboard chart-topping recording artist, Downes is the creator and host of the popular NPR show AMPLIFY with Lara Downes and boasts 100,000-plus weekly listeners to her nationally syndicated radio programs. In the words of American conductor JoAnn Falletta, “Lara Downes is a perfect artist for our time, a champion of new and neglected music, an extraordinary communicator, a passionate advocate for our art form.”

Through her groundbreaking initiative titled The Declaration Project, Downes celebrates the 250th anniversary of the US by reflecting on the nation’s founding principles. The multimedia world premiere performance will take place at New York’s Lincoln Center in July 2026, centered on a triptych of works—respectively titled Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness—that the pianist has commissioned from Grammy-winning composers Valerie Coleman, Arturo O’Farrill, and Christopher Tin. Through a series of regional residencies and a website, Downes is also collecting material in many forms from Americans of all ages and backgrounds to be incorporated into the performance. Following the premiere, she will tour The Declaration Project in both the US and Europe.

A sought-after piano soloist, Downes recently performed Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns noting that she “gave the imposing piano writing the heat of Liszt while maintaining the specific personality of Price.” Downes has also appeared with the orchestras of Boston, Detroit, Dallas, Louisville, and Indianapolis, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; and in recitals and residencies at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Big Ears festival, Disney Hall, Ravinia, Tanglewood, the Gilmore Festival, Carolina Performing Arts, and Washington Performing Arts. Her creative collaborations embrace an eclectic range of artists including musical polymath Rhiannon Giddens, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove, bassist Christian McBride, Broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell, author Adam Gopnik, the Miró Quartet, and violinists Tessa Lark and Daniel Hope. Close partnerships with a host of prominent genre- and generation-spanning composers include, in addition to the three Declaration Project composers, Billy Childs, Paola Prestini, Adolphus Hailstork, and Clarice Assad.

A cultural visionary, Downes is also increasingly active as a curator and creative partner for institutions including Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, where she serves as the orchestra’s inaugural Creative Partner. She also serves as Resident Artist for the Classical California media group (KDFC San Francisco and KUSC Los Angeles).

As a recording artist, Downes’ uniquely insightful approach to concept and curation has resulted in an acclaimed series of chart- topping releases on the Pentatone, Sony Masterworks, and Rising Sun labels. Her latest, This Land, was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, in the Wall Street Journal, and in Downbeat Magazine; her 2023 release, Love at Last, was featured as an NPR Tiny Desk Concert; and America Again, selected by NPR as one of “10 Albums that Saved 2016,” was hailed by the Boston Globe as “a balm for a country riven by disunion.”

AMPLIFY with Lara Downes, the NPR music video series that the pianist created and hosts, features intimate, profoundly personal video conversations with the visionary artists and cultural leaders who are shaping the creative present and future. Downes’ work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the National Endow- ment for the Arts, the Sphinx Venture Fund, and the Center for Cultural Innovation, among others.

Downes’ fierce commitment to activism and advocacy has led to her role as Artist Ambassador for Headcount, a nonpartisan organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy.