LUCIA PULIDO is a Colombian singer with one of the richest voices on the international Latin American musical scene today. She has an experimental style marked by a distinct vocal sophistication, and has participated in various projects, ranging from traditional Colombian music to jazz and world music. Traditional genres such as cumbia and bullerengue from the Atlantic Coast, currulaos from the Pacific Coast as well as joropos from the Colombian Eastern Plains are the point of departure for her musical creativity. Lucía's vocal sophistication is enhanced in genres such as herding songs (cantos de vaquería), funeral laments (alabaos) and harvest chants (cantos de zafra), which give the singer the liberty to explore her voice fully.
She is currently working on several projects with musicians in New York City and in different countries in Latin America. Some of these include her New York based LUCIA PULIDO ENSEMBLE (Quintet and Trio), performing experimental arrangements of Colombian traditional music as well as newly composed songs written for her; the classic repertoire of Latin American songs of broken love ("despecho") performed with musicians based in New York; an experimental project based on Latin American traditional songs with Argentinean guitarist Fernando Tarrés; a project called "América Contemporánea – um Outro Centro" with Brazilian pianist Benjamim Taubkin and several musicians from different countries in Latin America; and New York cellist Erik Friedlander's "Colombiana" project. Her active career includes performances in Europe, Canada, United States, and Latin America.
In New York she has been invited to sing and record with different jazz musicians such as Ed Simon, Dave Binney, and Erik Friedlander, and with experimental and electronic musicians such as Christian Fennesz and Burkhard Stangl in Vienna. In the United States, Lucia has promoted her music in private theaters, universities, and in well known venues of the New York City area (Joe's Pub, Lincoln Center Out Doors, Queens Theatre in the Park, Knitting Factory, Roulette) and has been part of the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood concert series organized in the city. In 2000 she received a grant for New York City resident artists from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Foundation LMCC, and in the summers of 2007 and 2008 she was an Artist in Residence in Krems, Austria.
Lucía's musical compass after her arrival in New York in 1994 has been focused on an experimental approach to traditional Colombian rhythms and songs. In 1995 she recorded her first solo CD "Lucía" with the Colombian recording company Sonolux, distributed in the USA by Sony; in 2000, together with the Japanese percussionist Satoshi Takeishi, she recorded a CD for the German label Intuition (Religious and Pagan songs from Colombia); in 2004 she recorded "Dolor de Ausencia", a selection of classic Latin American songs of heart-broken love released by the label FM in Colombia; in 2005, together with Argentinean guitarist Fernando Tarrés, she recorded Songbook I and II for BAU Records; and in the Fall 2008 her latest work "Waning Moon – Luna Menguante", based on traditional Colombian music, was released by the label Adventure Music. Songbook III with Fernando Tarrés will be released by BAU records in Argentina in 2009.
Before her move to New York City, in Colombia, she was part of the duo "Iván y Lucía" for more than ten years with the singer and songwriter Iván Benavides, with whom she recorded three L.P.'s between 1986-1991, touring in Europe and Latin America.
